.^'\ 




js*^4^%J^ 



MR. GLADSTONE 



MR. GLADSTONE 



A MONOGRAPH 



BY 



SIR EDWARD W. HAMILTON 
K. C. B. 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1898 



3JAi" 



ij THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 



11 OF CONGI 



WASHINGTON I 



^)541 



Copyright, 1898, 
By Charles Scribner's Sons 




7WD COPIES RECEIVED* 



THE DEVINNE PRE99- 



^5 V4b <4^ -^*^^ -Mc'-?^'=fc 



THESE PAGES ARE 

DEDICATED 

TO 

MRS. GLADSTONE 



Preface 

Much has lately been said of Mr. 
Gladstone, the statesman who sat in Par- 
liament for a nearly unbroken term of 
sixty-two years, who held office under 
the Crown for twenty-seven years, and 
who served four times as the Queen's 
Prime Minister during an aggregate 
period of twelve years and a half Much 
more remains to be said. In fact, the 
task of recording fully and faithfully his 
public career will tax the power of a 
biographer of consummate industry as 
well as skill, if indeed it will not need 
to be intrusted to a group of biog- 
vii 



PREFACE 

raphers. It is not only that the mate- 
rials which will have to be digested are 
so extensive, and that much of them 
cannot with propriety be turned to im- 
mediate account, but, in the same way 
as the artist who has to depict a moun- 
tainous height must withdraw to an ap- 
preciable distance from it in order to 
represent the proportions truly, so must 
the biographer who desires to write with 
fidelity the life of a great public man 
allow an interval of time to elapse be- 
fore a just retrospect can be formed of 
the subject of his pen. 

It is otherwise with the personality 
of the man as distinguished from his 
public career. The more closely one 
has stood by him, and the fresher are 
one's impressions, the more faithfully 
and promptly ought the likeness to ad- 
mit of being drawn. It may, therefore, 
viii 



PREFACE 

be permissible, at the risk of presumptu- 
ousness, for one who was privileged to 
know Mr. Gladstone for nearly forty 
years, and still more privileged to have 
been brought in the closest contact with 
him for a considerable time, to attempt 
to give a just notion of the man^ by de- 
scribing, however imperfectly, some of 
his intellectual powers, characteristics, 
and accomplishments, some of his ways, 
aims, and objects, his likes and dislikes, 
and the general disposition of his mind. 
Character-drawing is always difficult; 
but the difficulties are specially great in 
the present case. For, not only is the 
subject one who, whatever may be the 
opinions now and hereafter formed of 
his statesmanship, will be admitted to 
be one of the most extraordinary men 
that England has ever produced, but I 
feel that, however much I may strive to 
ix 



PREFACE 

observe strict impartiality, I may, from 
having long been under the glamour 
of Mr. Gladstone, unconsciously lapse 
into undue eulogy. Accordingly, I ap- 
proach my task with much diffidence 
and many misgivings. 



Contents 



Preface .... 

I. Mr. Gladstone's Oratorical and De 
bating Powers . 

II. His Courage — Physical, Political 
and Moral 

III. Mr. Gladstone as Party Leader 

Parliamentary Leader, and Politi 
cal Colleague 

IV. How He was Abused, and how He 

Bore Abuse 

V. Why He Laid Himself Open to be 
Misunderstood. 



PAGE 

vii 



25 
39 

50 



VI. - His Natural Conservatism as Illus- 
trated by his Reverence for the 
Throne and Devotion to the Sov- 
ereign 58 

VII. Other Conservative Tendencies — 

His Sanguine Temperament . 71 

xi 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

VIII. His Alleged Love of Power and his 

Many-sidedness . . ,82 

IX. His Energy and Powers of Concen- 
tration — His Industry — Method 
— System of Work ... 97 

X. His Administrative Capacity and 
Command of Temper — A Day's 
Work 115 

XI. How Mr. Gladstone Exercised 
Crown Patronage and Judged 
Character . . . .128 



XII. 


His Achievements and Powers of 




Memory . . . • 138 


XIII. 


His Personal Charm and Home Life 146 


XIV. 


His Religious Views . . • '54 


XV. 


Some of his Opinions on Others . 159 


XVI. 


Conclusion. . . , .174 



Xll 



MR. GLADSTONE 



MR. GLADSTONE 

A MONOGRAPH 
I 
c 

DEBATING POWERS 

THE talent for which Mr. Gladstone 
will always be most renowned is 
that of the orator and debater. In the 
first place, nature had endowed him in a 
preeminent degree with every requisite 
for the display of that talent. His atti- 
tude while he was speaking was strik- 
ingly dignified and commanding. There 
was not a gesture that was awkward; 
there was not a movement of the body 



MR. GLADSTONE 

that did not give emphasis to the idea 
which he was expressing. The play 
of his countenance greatly varied; and 
each variation had its significance. There 
were looks which were reproachful, sym- 
pathetic, and impassioned. Each told 
its own tale. There were smiles which 
were at times playful, and at other times 
almost sardonic. His hawk-like eye was 
replete with fire. There was great ani- 
mation and energy in his manner. But 
most impressive of all was his voice. It 
was pitched in a middle key. There 
was a melodiousness about it which 
hardly could be excelled, if indeed it 
was ever equalled ; and it was used with 
great dramatic effect. He had an ex- 
traordinary power of modulating it. It 
was always clear when it was subdued; 
it was never harsh or grating when it 
was raised to its full power. He could 



AS AN ORATOR AND DEBATER 

regulate it with as much ease as the 
organist, skilled in the manipulation of 
keyboards and stops, can regulate the 
instrument at which he is sitting. His 
elocution was extraordinardy clear ; 
while a somewhat peculiar pronuncia- 
tion of certain words, far from marring 
his speaking, lent attractiveness to it. 

In the second place, his choice of 
language was unbounded. It has been 
said of Lord Holland and his illustrious 
son, Charles James Fox, that from the 
very wealth of their vocabulary there 
arose a tendency to hesitation. ^ But 
the wealth of vocabulary which was at 
Mr. Gladstone's command never pro- 
duced that effect. His flow of words 
was not that of the mountain stream, 
which comes tumbling down helter- 
skelter; it was that of the river with 

1 See Macaulay's "Essays," ninth edition, vol. iii. p. 213. 
3 



MR. GLADSTONE 

an immense volume of water, whose 
downward course is as regular as it is 
stately. He never gabbled. He never 
drawled. The pace at which he spoke 
was a very even one. He could have 
spoken to a metronome, though he had 
one pace for the House of Commons 
and another pace for the platform. 
There was never a pause for want of an 
expression, and there were never any 
inarticulate interpolations. Out of his 
wonderful verbal armory he could al- 
ways draw, not only the right word, but 
a string of words equally apposite. He 
was a living thesaurus or " Gradus," 
containing synonym after synonym ; and 
it was this extraordinary wealth of words 
which laid him open to the charge, not 
without reason, of being verbose. Dif- 
fuseness at times led to discursiveness ; 
and in this connection I am reminded 
4 



AS AN ORATOR AND DEBATER 

of a remark made once by Mr. Bright 
on Mr. Gladstone's style of speaking. 
" I sail," said Mr. Bright, " or endeavor 
to sail, from headland to headland. 
Gladstone, making for the same point, 
sails round the coast, and whenever he 
comes to a navigable river, he cannot 
resist the temptation of tracing it to its 
source." Mr. Gladstone's sentences were 
often very long, and one sometimes 
wondered how he would ever extricate 
himself from the maze of words. But 
there was nothing faulty in the construc- 
tion of a sentence. There were paren- 
theses, and occasionally even parentheses 
within parentheses ; but no sentence was 
ever ungrammatical or unfinished. 

One might have expected that, though 

he succeeded in emerging from his long 

sentences without offence to grammar, 

he would at times have lost the thread 

5 



MR. GLADSTONE 

of his discourse. But continuity of argu- 
ment never seemed to fail him. One 
single exception in this respect is on 
record, when he was speaking in the 
House of Commons some years ago. 
He was fulminating against the Oppo- 
sition, and he came to a dead halt. He 
turned round to one of his colleagues,^ 
seated beside him, and asked, " Where 
am I ? " Mr. Disraeli, who was leading 
the Opposition, overheard the remark, 
and, leaning across the table, came to the 
rescue. " The last word of the right hon- 
orable gentleman was ' satellites.' " Of 
Mr. Gladstone's losing his presence of 
mind while he was speaking there is 
no instance. Not only was he never 
thrown off his balance by interruptions, 
however frequent and unseemly they 
might be, but he was generally ready 

1 I believe I am right in saying that the colleague was Mr. 
Goschen. 

6 



AS AN ORATOR AND DEBATER 

to turn ejaculations to some telling ac- 
count. 

Like Mr. Pitt,^ Mr. Gladstone com- 
bined, in a very marked manner, the 
power of being perspicuous and the 
power of being obscure. No one could 
explain with greater lucidity the provi- 
sions of a complicated measure. No 
one could marshal in clearer array the 
most minute details. No one could 
handle in a more luminous fashion fig- 
ures and statistics, in which he so greatly 
revelled. And yet, when he wished not 
to be explicit, and desired to avoid com- 
mitting himself definitely, no one could 
be more dexterous in guarding himself, 
or in wrapping up his meaning in ob- 
scure language. Many were the occa- 
sions when opponents thought that they 
could convict Mr. Gladstone of contra- 

1 See Macaulay's "Biographies," twenty-fifth edition, p. 179. 
7 



MR. GLADSTONE 

dieting himself. He would at once take 
up the challenge, demanding chapter 
and verse. The volume of Hansard 
was sent for, and it was almost certain 
to be found that his previous statement 
had been so worded as to bear a con- 
struction not inconsistent with his later 
utterances. It used, indeed, to be said 
that it was all " ifs " and " ans " with Mr. 
Gladstone. So far from resenting the 
charge of being given to "hedge," he 
regarded it more as a compliment than 
anything else. For he considered it to 
be essential for a politician who was in 
a position of great responsibility to have 
the faculty of qualifying his statements. 
Such a man was at times, he thought, 
as much bound as a diplomatist to avoid 
being too precise. 

The way in which Mr. Gladstone set 
to work to prepare his speeches was very 
8 



AS AN ORATOR AND DEBATER 

different to that which is in modem 
vogue. He was known occasionally to 
commit to paper a peroration; but he 
never wrote out a speech in his life, and 
still less did he ever rehearse a speech to 
a shorthand-writer. The matter to which, 
when preparing a speech, he gave most 
attention was the construction or ar- 
rangement of it ; and it was in this re- 
spect more than any other that he 
showed consummate skill as an oratori- 
cal artist. When he had settled the 
outline of his speech, his thoughts were 
concentrated on the order of materials 
and the sequence of argument. This 
process of incubation was undergone, 
more often than not, when he was tak- 
ing his accustomed solitary walks. He 
then proceeded to jot down on note- 
paper the heads of that which he in- 
tended to say, or a certain number of 
9 



MR. GLADSTONE 

catch-words which were rather enig- 
matical to any one but himself. The 
actual clothing of his thoughts in words 
he left to the inspiration of the moment, 
knowing full well that his inexhaustible 
store of language would never fail him. 
When he had arranged in his mind 
what he intended to say, he could fime 
himself with such a nicety that he not 
only knew how long it would take him 
to deliver the speech as a whole, but he 
knew the exact time which each section 
of it would occupy. 

However fine were some of his care- 
fully prepared speeches, it is probable 
that the unpremeditated ones were those 
which produced the greatest effect. He 
shone conspicuously as a debater, being 
quick to seize on every weak argument 
of his adversary, sometimes retorting 
with fire and passion, sometimes with 

10 



AS AN ORATOR AND DEBATER 

sarcasm and contempt, and at other 
times with playfulness and banter, which 
well contrasted with the earnestness of 
his character. In spite of his pacific 
nature, he was eminently contentious, 
even militant, in debate. He was Hke 
Mr. Fox, who, when asked why he dis- 
puted so vehemently about some trifle or 
other, replied, "I must do so; I can't 
live without discussion."^ But what 
was most astounding about Mr. Glad- 
stone's speaking powers was that, by 
drawing partly on his endless stock of 
knowledge, and partly on his vivid 
imagination, he could make a most in- 
genious speech on any subject, no mat- 
ter how suddenly the subject was sprung 
upon him, or how slightly it had been 
studied by him. 

I have sometimes heard it questioned 

1 See Bagehot's "Biographical Studies," p. loi. 
II 



MR. GLADSTONE 

whether he was uniformly fair in stating 
his opponent's arguments. Nothing 
probably is more difficult than to restate 
in one's own language the exact gist of 
the argument of another; and anxious 
as he may have been to give a faithful re- 
production, he may not always have suc- 
ceeded in surmounting this difficulty. 
But, however that may be, there can be 
no doubt that his participation in a par- 
liamentary debate seemed to raise the 
whole tone of it; and the feeling that 
ran through the House when he was 
speaking was that he was the sole sur- 
viving representative of a school of 
oratory which had died out and was not 
likely to revive — that, in short, he was 
the last link that connected the oratorical 
present with the oratorical past. 

It must be remembered that his great 
predecessors in the art of oratory, like 

12 



AS AN ORATOR AND DEBATER 

Lord Chatham, Pitt, Fox, and Canning, 
had mainly to adapt their style of speak- 
ing to a parliamentary audience. But, 
living in an age when a public man has 
to speak on the platform as often as in 
the Senate, Mr. Gladstone had to suit 
himself to two very different audiences ; 
and he was as much at his ease with one 
as with the other. What gave so much 
force to his speaking was the conviction 
which he brought to his listeners that 
he believed every word that he uttered. 
There was no speaking " with his tongue 
in his cheek." He spoke straight from 
the heart. He was sure that, if his audi- 
ence knew what he knew, they would 
feel as he felt, and believe as he believed.^ 
Equally if not still more telling was the 
ardor which he threw into his subject, 
and the earnestness with which he pleaded 

* See Bagehot's " Biographical Studies," p. 98. 
13 



MR. GLADSTONE 

his cause. The effect was to kindle ex- 
traordinary enthusiasm among those to 
whom he was addressing himself, to 
thrill them with emotion, and to hold 
them spellbound. There may have been 
greater orators, and even greater de- 
baters ; but it is probably not too much 
to say that no man ever combined in a 
greater degree than did Mr. Gladstone 
the art of the orator ^ with that of the 
debater. Moreover, the high standard 
which, with rare exception, he main- 
tained in his speeches, was one of the 
most remarkable of his oratorical feats; 

1 Mr. Gladstone's own definition of oratory is curious and 
characteristic. "The work of the orator, from its very incep- 
tion," he says, " is inextricably mixed up with practice. It is 
cast in the mould offered to him by the mind of his hearers. 
It is an influence principally received from his audience (so to 
speak) in vapor, which he pours back upon them in a flood. 
The sympathy and concurrence of his time is («V), with his 
own mind, joint parent of his work. He cannot follow nor 
frame ideals : his choice is to be what his age will have him, 
what it requires in order to be moved by him, or else not to be 
at all." — Homery vol. iii. p. 107. 
14 



AS AN ORATOR AND DEBATER 

for it can be stated without fear of con- 
tradiction that no one ever spoke so 
often or so much. 

He lived in an age when speech-re- 
porting was carried to a high perfection, 
and to a degree of accuracy of which 
no one in the last century would have 
dreamed. He did not, therefore, like 
orators of a hundred years ago, lie under 
the disadvantage of having his speeches 
mutilated, the sense of them misrepre- 
sented, or his sentences distorted. But, 
no matter how well his speeches were 
reported, he was essentially one of those 
speakers who required to be heard, and 
indeed seen, in order to be properly 
appreciated. 



II 



HIS COURAGE — PHYSICAL, POLITICAL, AND 
MORAL 

IN a country like England, where 
government is carried on so much 
by speaking, the power of ready speech 
is undoubtedly the most essential of all 
qualities for a politician. But to how- 
ever great a degree that power may be 
admitted to belong to Mr. Gladstone, 
it would not by itself have given him 
the commanding influence which he ex- 
ercised over his fellow-countrymen. He 
had many other high and lovable quali- 
ties ; and probably no one of them more 
i6 



HIS COURAGE 

conduced to make him what he was 
than his indomitable courage — a quality 
which perhaps appeals to the imagina- 
tion with greater force than any other 
high quality. As Cominius, in the words 
of Shakespeare, says of Coriolanus : 

" It is held 
That valor is the chiefest virtue, and 
Most dignifies the haver ; if it be. 
The man that I speak of cannot in the world 
Be singly counterpois'd." i 

Notwithstanding that he was nervous by 
nature, Mr. Gladstone never showed any 
sign of personal fear. When the dyna- 
mite scare was at its height, the question 
of danger to himself never seemed to 
occupy his mind. In those days it was 
deemed necessary that he should be 
"followed"; but the greatest difficulty 
was experienced in inducing him to con- 
form to the measures which the precau- 

1 See Coriolanus^ Act ii., Scene 2. 
17 



MR. GLADSTONE 

tion of the police dictated. Indeed, it 
needed special alertness on the part of 
those who were commissioned to attend 
him to prevent his escaping from being 
" shadowed " ; and he would constantly 
appeal to be relieved of (what he called) 
the " dragon system." The only occa- 
sion on which his natural nervousness 
showed itself — and that only during the 
last two decades of his life — was when 
he was crossing a crowded thoroughfare. 
He then behaved like the proverbially 
timid nursery-maid, who commences her 
transit with a run half-way across the 
street, suddenly stops short, and beats 
an equally hasty retreat. Owing to 
such nervous vacillation, partly attribu- 
table to the vast development of street 
traffic in his old age, he would have met 
with more frequent accidents during 
his walks in London, had it not been 
i8 



HIS COURAGE 

that cabmen and omnibus-drivers, quick 
to recognize him, would pull up to let 
him pass by; and to this consideration 
on their part he constantly alluded with 
gratitude. 

His political pluck never failed him. 
He did not know what it was to turn 
tail; and though the boldest often be- 
come timid as age advances, yet with 
him, the older he grew, the greater intre- 
pidity did he display. The greater the 
difficulties in which he found himself 
involved, the greater was the coura- 
geous height to which he would rise. 
The tighter the corner into which he 
might be driven, the more redoubtable 
were the fighting powers which he 
would display. The more certain it 
was that he was playing a losing game, 
the more coolly would he keep his head. 
I happened once to be with him when 
19 



MR. GLADSTONE 

he knew that a ministerial defeat in the 
House of Commons was more than 
probable. He was discussing what 
course should be pursued in that event 
— whether he should resign or recom- 
mend the Queen to dissolve Parliament. 
Resignation seemed to commend itself 
most on purely tactical grounds. But 
he preferred boldness to prudence. " It 
will not do," he said, " to show the 
white feather." It was this constant ex- 
hibition of pluck that tended so much 
to make his name a word with which to 
conjure. It inspired his brother officers 
with confidence, and infused enthusiasm 
among the rank and file. 

Great though his political courage 
was, he possessed a courage of a still 
higher quality — the courage of his con- 
victions. With him right was might. 
If he had once convinced himself of the 



HIS COURAGE 

rectitude and justice of a particular 
course, his intrepidity knew no bounds. 
He became recklessly regardless of con- 
sequences, and would make great sacri- 
fices in order to secure the object which, 
for the moment, he had at heart. No 
more striking instance of this coura- 
geous strength of mind can be found 
than in his attitude toward Home Rule 
for Ireland. It has often been alleged that 
he took up that cause in order to secure 
for himself a majority in Parliament, and 
that he sacrificed principle to the love of 
power. The allegation has, I am con- 
vinced, no foundation. He became a 
convert to Home Rule because he had 
persuaded himself — whether rightly or 
wrongly is not to the point here — that 
Ireland could not be permanently gov- 
erned on constitutional lines except 
through her authorized representatives, 

21 



MR. GLADSTONE 

and unless a sense of responsibility was 
brought home to them. He knew well 
enough that in proposing such a measure 
so suddenly he ran the greatest risk of 
forfeiting the confidence of his personal 
friends, as well as of effecting a disrup- 
tion among his colleagues and followers. 
Nevertheless, he was prepared to incur 
that risk, and the risk of banishing his 
party from power for years to come, 
sooner than be deterred from doing that 
which his conscience and belief dictated 
to him. "I have," he once said to me, 
" made mistakes enough in my political 
career, God knows. But I can honestly 
assert that I have never said or done 
anything in politics in which I did not 
sincerely believe." So it was with Home 
Rule. It was not a question of sacrific- 
ing principle to power: it was a ques- 
tion of sacrificing personal convenience, 

22 



HIS COURAGE 

personal popularity, and personal friend- 
ship to principle — to what he had per- 
suaded himself to be right. " There is," 
to use his own words, " no greater honor 
to a man than to suffer for the sake of 
what he thinks to be righteous." Nay, 
further, having once brought his resolu- 
tion into harmony with his conscience, 
he never paused to consider how far his 
action would be liable to be misunder- 
stood, whether his good repute was 
likely to suffer, whether it would in- 
volve the boycott of society or the ban 
of the Church. When he had once put 
his hand to the plough, he never looked 
back. 

This resolute determination proceeded 
in great part from implicit confidence in 
himself Even those who possess in a 
high degree the invaluable faculty of 
decision are not unfrequently liable to 
23 



MR. GLADSTONE 

subsequent qualms of doubt. With 
Mr. Gladstone there was never any after- 
thought. When he had once made up 
his mind after due deliberation, he was 
convinced that he had made it up in the 
right way. This strength of conviction, 
amounting almost to a sense of infalli- 
bility, carried with it conviction in others, 
and constituted one of the principal 
reasons why he had so great a hold over 
his fellow-creatures. 



24 



Ill 

MR. GLADSTONE AS PARTY LEADER, 

PARLIAMENTARY LEADER, AND 

POLITICAL COLLEAGUE 

CURIOUSLY enough, it was the 
splendid quality of courage when 
carried to excess — that is, when turned 
into daring — that was the cause, more 
than any other, of bringing about the 
downfall of his party. Adept though he 
was at skating over the thinnest of ice, 
he nevertheless at times immersed him- 
self and his followers in deep water, 
because he declined to remain on the 
ice which bore well, or to heed the 
25 



MR. GLADSTONE 

finger-post of danger. It has been said 
that, had he been content to pursue a 
course fashioned on the lines of Lord 
Palmerston's policy, he might have held 
undisputed possession of the proudest 
of all positions — that of the Queen's 
Prime Minister — for an unbroken period 
of twenty years. But he was not a man 
to be content with a line of conduct 
which made things easy for himself 

There was another respect in which as a 
party leader he at times rather failed. He 
was apt to disregard or to set too little 
value upon small amenities toward his 
followers. He was not inhospitably in- 
clined : on the contrary, he enjoyed 
dispensing hospitality; and when he in- 
vited members of the House of Com- 
mons to his house, he received them 
with cordiality and courtesy. But the 
trouble and irksomeness inseparable from 
26 



AS POLITICAL LEADER 

entertaining told upon him as he grew 
older, and he fought more and more shy 
of showing civility to his supporters, 
preferring to come home to a small 
family dinner on parliamentary nights, 
while on other nights he would rather 
dine at the houses of friends in order to 
secure a more complete change of scene 
and thought. Similarly, he would rarely 
of his own accord notice in the lobbies 
of the House of Commons members of 
his party. It was not only that he was 
not by nature " hail-fellow-well-met " 
with everybody, but a want of quick 
physical perception, due to visual defect, 
was a failing of which he was himself 
fully. conscious, and of which he often 
complained. He used to say that he 
hesitated about going up to speak to 
people, for fear of making mistakes 
about their identity. This hesitation 
27 



MR. GLADSTONE 

produced on others an impression of 
hauteur on his part. Many a vote has 
been maintained or won by a casual 
word of civility or a nod of friendly 
recognition; and these were "tricks of 
the trade" in which, as in the art of 
finessing, he was no proficient. 

But, notwithstanding these defects, it 
is probable that no public man of Eng- 
land in the present century has held 
to so high a degree undisputed sway 
over his followers as did Mr. Gladstone. 
Those members of his party who were 
most given to " run riot " would " come 
to heel" when he chose to call them 
— so magnetic and irresistible was the 
effect of his call. He was always reluc- 
tant to hold a meeting of his party, re- 
garding it as a perilous experiment, and 
as one to which resort should not be had 
except on rare occasions. But it was 
28 



AS POLITICAL LEADER 

only necessary to attend such a meeting, 
presided over by himself, in order to be 
convinced of the wonderful power which 
he had of rallying falterers and malcon- 
tents. As soon as he had raised his 
voice to expound his intentions, explain 
his tactics, and call for support, the lag- 
gards and stragglers at once fell into 
line. Indeed, whenever it pleased him 
to give a word of command in some 
specially emphatic manner, the ranks 
were immediately closed. For a while, 
at any rate, murmurs and grumbles were 
no longer heard. It is true that his party 
fell to pieces more than once in his hands; 
but every leader, however adroit he may 
be, has to reckon with causes beyond 
his control — the automatic wasting of 
majorities, the natural swing of the pen- 
dulum, the sudden transitions of public 
opinion, which, if not peculiar to the 
29 



MR. GLADSTONE 

present popular franchise, are perhaps 
more frequent and more marked in our 
own times than formerly. Accordingly, 
it would not be fair to attribute to defects 
of leadership all the several defeats which 
the Liberal party sustained while Mr. 
Gladstone was at the head of it. At the 
same time, the shattering of that party 
in consequence of his espousing the 
cause of Home Rule, and springing 
it upon his followers with little or no 
warning, may not improbably be set 
down by the historians of the future as 
no small blot on his character as a party 
leader. 

But, however that may be, his su- 
premacy as a parliamentary leader can 
hardly be questioned by his most out- 
spoken critics. Indeed, he was — to 
quote Mr. Balfour's words — "the 
greatest member of the greatest de- 
30 



AS POLITICAL LEADER 

liberatiye assembly which, so far, the 
world has seen." ^ It was in the House 
of Commons where he showed himself 
to the highest advantage. It was there 
that his powers of readiness, adroitness, 
and patience were most conspicuously 
displayed. The worse the parliamentary 
case with which he had to deal, the bet- 
ter and more skilfully would he defend 
it ; while the stronger the position of his 
opponents, the greater was the mastery 
which he displayed in parliamentary at- 
tack. And yet, standing though he did 
head and shoulders above all other mem- 
bers of the House of Commons, there 
was no display of conscious superiority 
on his part. He possessed in an un- 
usual degree what he himself consid- 
ered to be the first quality of a leader in 
a deliberative assembly — " quick per- 

1 See Hansard, 4th series, vol. Iviii. p. 121. 
31 



MR. GLADSTONE 

ception " : the ability to " feel the pulse 
of the House " promptly and accurately, 
and to read its temper. Even in the 
last years of his parliamentary career, 
when his physical powers were some- 
what impaired, the "old parliamentary 
hand " never lost its cunning. No man 
ever strove more manfully to sustain the 
honor and dignity of the House of Com- 
mons, of which he was so jealous. His 
love for that House, in which he seemed 
to breathe his native air, was only 
equalled by his belief in parliamentary 
government. He generally declined to 
admit that there was any real decadence 
in the composition of the representative 
assembly. In his view, what it had lost 
in some respects it had gained in others. 
Concerned though he was at the devel- 
opment of obstruction during the later 
years of his life, he knew that it was no 
32 



AS POLITICAL LEADER 

new growth. It was a weed that had 
reared its head before, and he believed 
that it would die down again. 

His parliamentary talent was never 
displayed more conspicuously than in 
the skill which he showed in piloting 
through committee a complicated mea- 
sure. He was the greatest of parlia- 
mentary engineers. What stood him in 
such good stead was not only a light- 
ning-like quickness in perceiving what 
amendments might with propriety be 
accepted, and what amendments must 
be rejected, but his complete mastery 
of the subject under discussion in every 
detail. He knew his lesson better than 
any one else knew it. This intimate 
knowledge of bills which he was him- 
self conducting was due to his having 
studied so carefully the framing of 
them. A parliamentary counsel of great 
33 



MR. GLADSTONE 

experience once told me that Mr. Glad- 
stone was the one minister, to his know- 
ledge, who not only could, or at any 
rate did, furnish the general lines of 
the measure, but who would put actual 
provisions into parliamentary phrase- 
ology. 

Both in and out of Parliament Mr. 
Gladstone showed great kindness toward 
his political colleagues. If one of them 
happened to get into difficulties about a 
bill, a helping hand would be immedi- 
ately extended to him. If, owing to 
some administrative blunder, another 
had become the subject of attack or 
ridicule, he would be able to count con- 
fidently on being wisely advised and, in- 
deed, ably defended. A third might be 
confronted with specially anxious times ; 
and he would be sure to receive from 
his political chief words of sympathy and 
34 



AS POLITICAL LEADER 

encouragement, spoken or written in the 
most tactful manner. 

It has, however, often been assumed 
that, kindly though his disposition was, 
Mr. Gladstone was masterful and domi- 
neering — that he dictated to his col- 
leagues in the Cabinet, and declined to 
listen to what they had to say. This 
assumption is ill-founded. They may 
have had reason at times to complain 
that he showed them a want of consider- 
ation by "springing a mine" upon them, 
or by not taking them into his confidence 
early enough; but so far from riding 
rough-shod over them, he was emi- 
nently deferential, in the sense of being 
always ready to listen to the doubts and 
scruples of those who disagreed with 
him, and to appreciate their difficulties. 
It is true that, presumably impressed 
with his immeasurable superiority, his 
35 



MR. GLADSTONE 

colleagues were apt to be timid in his 
presence, and to lose their argumenta- 
tive powers with him. They seemed to 
have feelings akin to those of boys at 
school who find themselves confronted 
with the head-master. I have known 
more than one colleague enter his room 
with a fixed determination of resigning. 
The interview would take place, and it 
would probably be lengthy. In the end, 
the colleague, more often than not, would 
leave the room a wiser and a sadder 
man — wiser because in the interview 
so much fresh light had been shed and 
so many fresh arguments had been ad- 
duced, sadder because he had been de- 
terred from executing his threat, and had 
thus been placed in a position which no 
one likes, involving as it did not only 
the abandonment of a fixed resolve, but 
likewise a confession of being worsted 
36 



AS POLITICAL LEADER 

in a discussion. The fact was, Mr. 
Gladstone's power of persuasive reason- 
ing, taken in conjunction with his sym- 
pathizing demeanor, his lengthened ex- 
perience, and his weight of authority, 
proved too much for the waverer. Mr. 
Gladstone had probably made some 
small concession which had removed in 
part the difficulties; for, recognizing 
that " the art of a politician is " (as Mr. 
Lecky puts it) " in a great measure that 
of skilful compromise," he was ever 
ready with the offer of a golden bridge, 
or via. media^ in order to reconcile effec- 
tually differences of opinion — in other 
(and his own) words, " to carry on the 
business of the government as a going 
concern." While, however, so willing — 
indeed, perhaps too willing — to defer 
to others, yet there were limits beyond 
which he would not yield, preferring 
37 



MR. GLADSTONE 

bankruptcy to discreditable solvency. 
On these occasions he would disregard 
everybody and everything; and when 
he had once got the bit in his teeth, his 
head was not to be turned. He would 
dash straight onward, regardless of the 
obstacles ahead, however formidable 
they were. When in such a mood, 
sooner than swerve to the right or to the 
left, he would ride for a fall. 



38 



IV 



HOW HE WAS ABUSED, AND HOW HE 
BORE ABUSE 

SO fresh in our recollection are the 
noble and magnanimous speeches 
delivered on the morrow of Mr. Glad- 
stone's death by the leaders of both 
Houses of Parliament, opposed though 
they had been to him throughout their 
political lives, and so impressive was the 
ceremony within Westminster Abbey, 
which was attended by as many political 
foes as political friends,^ that we are apt 

1 Of the members of Parliament who notified their inten- 
tion to attend the funeral, there were 241 Unionists, 166 
Liberals, and 50 Irish Nationalists. 

39 



MR. GLADSTONE 

to forget that few public men, if any, 
were ever the object of such virulent 
abuse, such bitter invective, and such 
rooted distrust as was Mr. Gladstone in 
numerous circles up to the very day of 
his retirement from the field of politics, 
four years before his death. It was not 
merely that his policy was violently as- 
sailed, and his actions severely criticised, 
but every kind of wrong intent and 
ulterior motive was attributed to him. 
Even his private character was aspersed 
and his private acts misconstrued. It 
would serve no useful purpose to recall 
any of the opprobrious epithets which 
were prefixed and affixed to his name, 
or of the insinuations which were so 
constantly levelled at his head. But it 
is difficult to overrate the intensity of 
hatred which the mere mention of the 
word " Gladstone " excited in many 
40 



HOW HE BORE ABUSE 

quarters, not only in England, but 
even in distant parts of the empire, es- 
pecially during the last ten years of his 
public life; or to exaggerate the feeling 
of repugnance entertained, not only by 
those who encountered him in parlia- 
mentary strife, but also by those whose 
connection with him was purely social. 
By way of illustration, two instances 
which occur to me may be cited. A 
friend of mine was travelling in India a 
few years ago. He desired to send Mr. 
Gladstone a telegraphic greeting on the 
anniversary of his birthday. The offi- 
cer in command of the military wire by 
which the telegram had to be trans- 
mitted declined to send the message, 
" God bless you," on the ground that he 
could not be party to such words. In- 
deed, the only message for which he 
would make himself responsible was one 
41 



MR. GLADSTONE 

substituting an imprecation for a bless- 
ing. On another occasion, a lady who 
had known Mr. Gladstone for many 
years found herself, one Sunday, kneel- 
ing next to him at the communion-rail 
in the Chapel Royal. The moment she 
discovered his close proximity, she rose 
and left the steps of the altar without 
taking the sacrament. 

Incidents like these typical ones 
were unknown to him, but he was 
fully aware that his conduct was con- 
stantly being impugned, and that the 
hardest of things were said of him. 
Nor did he flinch from knowing the 
worst. Indeed, he would himself give 
orders for the purchase of a specially 
offensive caricature, or a peculiarly ven- 
omous magazine article, to which he had 
seen or heard some allusion. 

It is, moreover, a mistake to suppose 
42 



HOW HE BORE ABUSE 

that he did not read the public press, 
and that everything written by way of 
disparagement was concealed from him. 
With his many absorbing occupations, 
he did not spend or waste much time 
over newspapers. Much less did he 
look at them for the purpose of seeing 
what was said of himself Indeed, had 
he done so, he would have had little 
time for anything else. But until his 
eyesight failed him, he looked at the 
organs of the press with great regular- 
ity ; and it is interesting to inquire how 
he received the many attacks made 
upon him. 

In the first place, he was not sensitive. 
In these days, when not only the search- 
light of the press and platform is turned 
on to public men with such force, but 
when their interior lives are laid so bare 
by the Rontgen rays of free criticism, it 
43 



MR. GLADSTONE 

is most necessary that they should steel 
themselves against exposure to attack. 
Mr. Gladstone held that nothing inter- 
fered more seriously with the usefulness 
of a politician than oversensitiveness. 
Partly by force of character and partly 
by inurement, he was himself the reverse 
of being thin-skinned. He seldom 
winced under written or spoken castiga- 
tion, however scathing it might be. It 
was not that he was insensible to what 
was said about him; but he recognized 
that, living as he did under the full 
glare of public opinion, he could not 
escape being made the object of oppro- 
brium; and he knew that, while blame 
was freely meted out to him in many 
quarters, yet in others he had, in equally 
unstinted measure, a large share of praise 
and encouragement accorded to him. 
He used to say that, on the whole, he 
44 



HOW HE BORE ABUSE 

thought that he had no cause to complain 
of the manner in which he had been 
handled. He had, no doubt, on the one 
hand, been abused in unmeasured terms ; 
on the other hand, he feh that he had 
been appreciated and lauded far beyond 
his deserts. " On balance, I consider 
that the plaudits have exceeded, and 
indeed drowned, the hisses within my 
hearing." Indeed, he firmly believed 
that public men, with rare exceptions, 
got their due in England. The peo- 
ple, he would say, might be trusted 
to do justice to their leaders and recog- 
nize their motives. 

In the second place, the natural bent 
of his own mind was inclined to gener- 
osity toward those who attacked him — 
not only those who had been his lifelong 
opponents, but also those who, having 
once stood by him, had subsequently 
45 



MR. GLADSTONE 

parted company with him. This gen- 
erous disposition was mainly due to his 
readiness " to give everybody credit for 
presumptive integrity and purity of mo- 
tive " — a credit which, at any rate, 
during his fighting days, was rarely re- 
ciprocated. He judged others as he 
would be judged, but seldom, until 
quite recently, was judged by them. In 
a word, he always behaved as a great 
gentleman. He would not allow harsh 
things to be said in his presence about 
his pohtical opponents of long or short 
standing. He may have been slow to 
forget, but he generally forgave. He 
rarely complained of the attacks made 
upon him by the public press. Of late 
years, the " Times " newspaper persis- 
tently not only assailed him but attrib- 
uted to him sinister motives. He once 
said to me, when that great organ had 
46 



HOW HE BORE ABUSE 

delivered some more than usually vio- 
lent diatribe against him, " I bear no 
malice against the ' Times.' It has be- 
come a party organ, so it is legitimate 
for it to act as such." But though he 
seldom spoke depreciatingly about for- 
mer colleagues and supporters, he would 
often refer, with a slight touch of sar- 
casm, to the " greater activity and enthu- 
siasm assumed in their new role by 
politicians who had changed their views 
and had left their party." In connection 
with this rather favorite theme of his, he 
was wont to say, " Nowhere does one 
meet with such strange bed-fellows as in 
politics." 

When people had exhausted their 
powers of abusing Mr. Gladstone, they 
occasionally were unscrupulous enough 
to attribute mania to him, and in confir- 
mation of their assertions they were wont 
47 



MR. GLADSTONE 

to ascribe to him freaks which were akin 
to insanity. Such assertions are almost 
beneath contempt ; but the groundless- 
ness of one may be cited, by way of ex- 
ample. It was commonly alleged that 
he would walk into a hatter's shop and 
order several dozen hats for himself It 
may be difficult to trace the proverbial 
connection between madness and the 
seller of hats ; but, in this case, the con- 
duct of the purchaser of that useful arti- 
cle is capable of easy explanation. The 
story came round to his own ears ; and 
he was not only highly amused by it, 
but thought it a most pardonable mis- 
take to have been made by his detrac- 
tors, because it was founded on fact. 
Some years ago he was walking at 
Brighton with Mrs. Gladstone, and no- 
ticed in a shop-window some straw hats 
marked at a singularly low price. He 
48 



HOW HE BORE ABUSE 

suggested that his wife should avail her- 
self of the opportunity offered, and pur- 
chase some of the hats for the inmates 
of her orphanage. Thereupon, they 
entered the shop together, and ordered 
for despatch to Hawarden two dozen 
and a half of these articles of apparel, 
which were to be obtained at so reason- 
able an outlay. 

Being himself generous and kind, he 
greatly appreciated generosity and kind- 
ness in others. To kindly acts he was 
most susceptible. When any marked 
attention or thoughtfulness was shown 
toward him, when any special facilities 
were accorded to him, as, for instance, 
by railway companies, or when any un- 
usually warm demonstration was made 
in his favor, his constant remark to 
those about him was, "What have I 
done to deserve all this kindness ^ " 
49 



WHY HE LAID HIMSELF OPEN TO BE 
MISUNDERSTOOD 

THE provocation which Mr. Glad- 
stone not unfrequently excited 
among his political opponents may be 
in part ascribed to his inability or, at 
any rate, reluctance to admit that he had 
been in the wrong, or had changed his 
opinions. Admissions of fallibility might 
often have stood him in good stead; and 
so might admissions that what he once 
thought right, he at another time thought 
wrong. But it seems to be a traditional 
point of honor with public men to for- 
50 



WHY HE WAS MISUNDERSTOOD 

swear such admissions, though they 
would readily appeal to the common 
sense of Englishmen; and Mr. Glad- 
stone was no exception to the rule. He 
was always taking pains to prove that 
it was a growth, not a change of opin- 
ion ; that he had foreshadowed this policy 
or indicated that measure. He attached 
too much importance to establishing 
consistency. He would not admit, like 
Mr. Pitt, that "that man who talks of 
his consistency merely because he holds 
the same opinion for ten or fifteen years, 
when the circumstances under which it 
was originally formed are totally changed, 
is a slave to the most idle vanity." ^ 

The frequent attempts on the part of 
Mr. Gladstone to explain away appa- 
rently inconsistent statements, and to 
reconcile new beliefs with old ones, ren^ 

1 See Lord Stanhope's " Life of Pitt," vol. iii. p. 328. 
51 



MR. GLADSTONE 

dered him liable to be misunderstood. 
But he had other characteristics which 
had the same tendency. Among them 
may be numbered certain contrarieties of 
impulse. Recognition of facts was un- 
doubtedly one of the greatest motive 
powers with him. " The immediate in- 
stincts and sense of the people " were, in 
his view and in his own words, "gen- 
erally right." No man was, as a rule, 
given to approach the consideration of 
political problems or affairs of state from 
a more practical point of view than was 
Mr. Gladstone. Indeed, he was apt to 
take such an accurate measure of " the 
range of practical politics " that he laid 
himself open to the charge of being an 
opportunist, in the sense of going with 
the times or floating with the tide. He 
would, it was said, never take up a 
cause till it was " ripe." And yet at 
52 



WHY HE WAS MISUNDERSTOOD 

times he showed himself to be conspicu- 
ously the reverse of an opportunist. For 
he was almost as often behind or in 
advance of the times as he was abreast 
of them. He would constantly disre- 
gard expediency when he was minded 
to make an effort on behalf of ends 
which he deemed to be righteous, and 
of truths which he thought to be vital. 

The unusual receptiveness of his mind 
constituted another source of misunder- 
standing. Because he changed his opin- 
ions and tactics, he was wont to be 
charged by his critics with having no 
fixed principles and no settled policy 
in view. Indeed, an ably written article, 
which recently appeared in one of the 
monthly magazines,^ is mainly devoted 
to prove that Mr. Gladstone was wanting 
in " long-sighted persistency of purpose," 

1 See " Blackwood's Magazine," No. dcccxciii. 

53 



MR. GLADSTONE 

on which he himself had avowedly set 
high store.^ By " persistency of purpose " 
I understand to be meant a fixed resolve 
to exhaust every expedient in order to 
attain a particular end ; and surely even 
those who may consider his judgment 
to have been most mistaken can hardly 
decline to credit him with indomitable 
resolution when, regardless of the conse- 
quences to himself and his party, he 
could be found to devote more than 
sixty years to what in his conception 
would promote the better government 
of his fellow-creatures, and nearly thirty 
years to the single purpose of making 
Ireland, as he fondly hoped, more or- 
derly, more prosperous, more contented 
with her lot ? The writer of the article 
presumably confuses means with ends. 

1 See Hansard, 3d series, vol. cclxi. p. 43, speech on Lord 
Beaconsfield, May 9, 1881. 

54 



WHY HE WAS MISUNDERSTOOD 

For it is as inappropriate to say, at any 
rate as regards the Irish question, that 
Mr. Gladstone was lacking in "persis- 
tency of purpose " as to attribute that 
deficiency to the physician who, bent on 
doing his utmost to restore his patient to 
health, tries first one prescription and 
then another in the belief as well as 
hope that he will eventually find the 
right remedy. 

Again, though few people could more 
plainly "call a spade a spade," if he 
liked, yet Mr. Gladstone seemed some- 
times to delight in mystification by re- 
fining and drawing subtle distinctions. 
He could distinguish between two prop- 
ositions which the plain man would 
regard as identical. This proneness to 
"split hairs" and balance words was due 
in part to his seeing distinctly both sides 
of a question, to his quickness to seize 
55 



MR. GLADSTONE 

upon the smallest point telling in favor 
of his own argument, and to the pride 
which he took in guarding himself But 
it was calculated to give people cause 
for ascribing to him dishonesty of inten- 
tion and want of straightforwardness, 
which were really altogether alien to the 
intrinsic simplicity and guilelessness of 
his nature. 

To whatever extent Mr. Gladstone 
may have laid himself open to be mis- 
understood, he was not peculiar in this 
respect. Most men occupying positions 
similar to that which he occupied have 
shared a similar fate. He himself went 
so far as to say that unintelligibility was 
a characteristic common to all men of 
political mark. Indeed, of all the many 
colleagues who had sat with him in the 
Cabinet, he was wont to declare that he 
himself never really understood but one, 
56 



WHY HE WAS MISUNDERSTOOD 

and that was Lord Aberdeen. In this 
connection he was fond of repeating a 
saying attributed to Pope Pius the 
Ninth. It happened once that Mr. 
Gladstone and three of his colleagues — 

Lord Clarendon, Mr. Cardwell, and 

— foregathered at Rome, and presuma- 
bly all had audiences of his Holiness. 
Being asked his opinion of these four 
distinguished British statesmen, the pope 
said, " Lord Clarendon I both liked and 
understood; Mr. Gladstone I liked, but 
did not understand ; Mr. Cardwell I un- 
derstood, but did not like ; I nei- 
ther understood nor liked." 



57 



VI 

HIS NATURAL CONSERVATISM AS ILLUS- 
TRATED BY HIS REVERENCE FOR 
THE THRONE AND DEVOTION 
TO THE SOVEREIGN 

IN no respect was Mr. Gladstone, per- 
haps, more misunderstood than in the 
innate bent of his mind. In the eyes of 
some people he was a conspirator against 
the Constitution, determined to under- 
mine its pillars — " the unscrupulous and 
destructive demagogue," the advocate of 
disruption, especially in connection with 
his Irish policy. This belief had in 
reality no foundation. What was said 
58 



HIS NATURAL CONSERVATISM 

of him many years ago was not more 
true then than it was at the end of his 
political days : " Gladstone is not radical 
in the sense of desiring to subvert institu- 
tions. It is a singularly conserving spirit, 
but he is far-seeing enough to see that 
democracy was inevitable; and instead 
of fruitlessly endeavoring to stem that 
tide, he saw he must go with it in order 
to moderate its force." The fact is, Mr. 
Gladstone's mind was essentially con- 
structive, not destructive — conservative, 
not radical. He had in time what Mr. 
John Morley attributes to Burke — "a 
reasoned and philosophic veneration for 
all old and settled order." ^ He was an 
absolute slave to precedent and tradition, 
to recognized forms and established pro- 
cedure. He had no disposition toward, 
much less love for, change for the sake 

1 See Mr. John Morley's " Burke," p. 191. 
S9 



MR. GLADSTONE 

of change, and he would only recom- 
mend change when he had convinced 
himself that it was calculated to assist in 
maintaining the institutions of the coun- 
try. Those institutions he regarded not 
only with respect, but with affection and 
pride. He looked upon them much as 
the owner of a fine ancestral hall looks 
upon his possession. In the interests of 
conserving the fabric, Mr. Gladstone 
recognized the necessity for so repairing 
it as to meet the inroads of age, and for 
introducing such modern conveniences 
as would adapt it to changed circum- 
stances; but to touch it where in his 
judgment it was not necessary to touch 
it, was sacrilege. He tolerated and in- 
deed often advocated change, because he 
regarded it as a lesser evil than persis- 
tence in a course which was known to be 
wrong; but there was no "radicalism," 
60 



HIS NATURAL CONSERVATISM 

in the ordinary acceptation of the term, 
in his nature. He was a great moder- 
ating and controlling force. Extreme 
people would listen to him when they 
would hear no one else. He was the 
ballast in the political ship. Indeed, if 
his tendency to add stability to the new 
democratic order of things had been 
more fully appreciated, and if his con- 
servatism and "constitutionalism" had 
been more widely comprehended, it is 
quite possible that he would have been 
regarded with less suspicion by those 
who desired to avert all change, and 
with less trustfulness by those who had 
very advanced views. 

Closely connected with the conserva- 
tive instincts with which he was imbued 
was his marked reverence for and at- 
tachment to the Throne. It may be 
doubted whether any of the Queen's 
6i 



MR. GLADSTONE 

prime ministers more greatly admired, 
or did more to support, constitutional 
monarchy in England — the monarchy 
to which he used to refer as "the 
most illustrious in the world." The 
substitution of influence for direct power 
had, he was convinced, not only not im- 
paired, but in fact increased, the dignity 
and authority of the Sovereign. In the 
first place, the social influence of the 
Sovereign, even if it stood alone, was (to 
quote Mr. Gladstone's own words) " an 
enormous attribute." " The English 
people," he has remarked, "are not be- 
lievers in equality. . . . Their natural 
tendency, from the very base of British 
society, and through all its strongly built 
gradations, is to look upwards. . . . 
The Sovereign is the highest height of 
the system — is, in that system, like 
Jupiter among the Roman gods, first 
62 



HIS NATURAL CONSERVATISM 

without a second ; . . . not, like Mont 
Blanc, with rivals in his neighborhood, 
but, like Ararat or Etna, towering alone 
and unapproachable. The step down- 
ward from the King (or Queen) to the 
second person in the realm is not like 
that from the second to the third; it is 
more even than a stride, for it traverses 
a gulf It is the wisdom of the British 
Constitution to lodge the personality of 
its chief so high that none shall, under 
any circumstances, be tempted to vie, 
no, nor dream of vieing, with it. " ^ 

But the Sovereign was, in Mr. Glad- 
stone's view, not only a social power. 
Though the actual amount of influence 
which the Sovereign might exercise in 
public affairs would always depend on 
the " character, capacity, and experience 
of the occupant of the Throne," yet the 

1 See " Gleanings of Past Years," vol. i. pp. 234, 235. 

63 



MR. GLADSTONE 

part sustained by the Monarch in this 
respect still was, and would, as he hoped, 
continue to be, "a great matter." The 
Sovereign (to quote Mr. Gladstone 
again) " is entitled, on all subjects com- 
ing before the ministry, to knowledge 
and opportunities of discussion, un- 
limited save by the iron necessities of 
business. Though decisions must al- 
ternately conform to the sense of those 
who are to be responsible for them, yet 
their business is to inform and persuade 
the Sovereign, not to overrule him. 
Were it possible for him, within the 
limits of human time and strength, to 
enter actively into all public transac- 
tions, he would be fully entitled to do 
so. What is actually submitted is sup^ 
posed to be the fnost fruitful and im- 
portant part, the cream of affairs. In 
the discussion of them, the Monarch has 
64 



HIS NATURAL CONSERVATISM 

more than one advantage over his ad- 
visers. He is permanent, they are 
fugitive ; he speaks from the vantage- 
ground of a station unapproachably- 
higher ; he takes a calm and leisurely 
survey, while they are worried with the 
preparatory stages, and their force is 
often impaired by the pressure of count- 
less detail. He may be, therefore, a 
weighty factor in all deliberations of 
state. Every discovery of a blot, that 
the studies of the Sovereign in the do- 
main of business enable him to make, 
strengthens his hands and enhances his 
authority. It is plain, then, that there is 
abundant scope for mental activity to be 
at work under the gorgeous robes of 
Royalty."^ It was, Mr. Gladstone 
thought, difficult to overrate the extent 
to which the Sovereign of England 

1 See "Gleanings of Past Years," vol. i, pp. 232, 233. 

65 



MR. GLADSTONE 

contributed to "permanence and solid- 
ity of action." Accordingly, the Crown 
with him was far from being a mere 
figurehead or symbol. It was a great 
power, wisely concealed in part from 
view, by reason of its enjoying in regard 
to all its functions an absolute immunity 
from consequences — an absolute inabil- 
ity' to be called to account. 

He had, moreover, a great idea of 
keeping up the dignity and splendor 
of the Court. The Court was, he con- 
sidered, bound to be properly provided 
for, in order that the Sovereign might 
maintain his " high and inestimable 
position in the eyes of his subjects." 
The existing Civil List of her Majesty 
and the allowances to members of her 
family were, he believed, conceived in 
a judiciously moderate spirit, " when we 
consider the nature of this country and 
66 



HIS NATURAL CONSERVATISM 

the standard of wealth and enjoyment 
which prevails."^ Mr. Gladstone's last 
public utterances on this subject were 
made in the debate preceding the con- 
sideration of the motion for establishing 
an annual grant of ;^36,ooo, during the 
reign of the Queen, for the benefit of 
the Prince of Wales' children. In that 
speech, delivered on July 25, 1889, 
which produced such an impression on 
his hearers, he reminded the Commons 
that they were " servants of the Crown 
as well as servants of the people," and 
wound up with the memorable words, 
" I am not ashamed to say that in my 
old age I rejoice in any opportunity 
which enables me to testify that, what- 
ever may be thought of my opinions, 
whatever may be thought of my pro- 

1 Speech on the motion for providing an additional grant to 
the Duke of Albany on his marriage. See Hansard, 3d 
series, vol. cclxvii. p. 1673. 

67 



MR. GLADSTONE 

posals in general politics, I do not forget 
the service which I have borne for so 
many years to the illustrious representa- 
tive of the British monarchy."^- 

The great outburst of loyalty and en- 
thusiasm in 1887, in connection with the 
celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of 
the Queen's accession to the throne, had 
conclusively proved to him that mon- 
archy was perfectly compatible with de- 
mocracy, great though were the strides 
which democracy had made during the 
last half of the nineteenth century. But 
further than this, he specially rejoiced in 
the demonstrations of 1887 ; for he not 
unfrequently felt that inasmuch as the 
Queen's work was so much withdrawn 
from the view of the people, while they 
were always being reminded of public 
men, there was a tendency to "some 

1 See Hansard, 3d series, vol. cccxxxviii. pp. 1323, 1324. 

68 



HIS NATURAL CONSERVATISM 

dislocation of the natural and just bal- 
ance of popular interest " ; and this ten- 
dency the Jubilee was calculated to 
counteract. 

V Not only did he venerate monarchical 
institutions and believe them to be the 
most perfect form of government, but he 
also felt profound devotion to the person 
of the Sovereign. He was not a courtier. 
Anything like obsequiousness or flattery 
was foreign to his nature. But, though 
he would never deviate one yard from 
the path which public duty had seem- 
ingly marked out for him in order to 
curry favor with the Crown, yet he was 
scrupulously assiduous in his duties to- 
ward his Sovereign. No amount of 
fatigue or pressure of work would deter 
him, when Prime Minister, from inditing 
with the greatest regularity a report of 
the proceedings of every Cabinet meet- 
69 



MR. GLADSTONE 

ing, and of each sitting of the House of 
Commons, for the promptest dispatch 
to Windsor, Osborne, or Balmoral. In 
making these reports, he was, in his 
judgment, bound "not to counterwork 
the Cabinet; not to divide it; not to 
undermine the position of any of his 
colleagues in the royal favor." ^ Indeed, 
any departure from strict adherence to 
these rules was committing " an act of 
treachery and baseness." ^ He considered 
that it was as unjustifiable to impair the 
solidarity of the Cabinet in the eyes of 
the Sovereign as in the eyes of the public. 
He held, too, in high regard, and sought 
to treat with the greatest deference, all 
members of the Royal Family, who had, 
in his opinion, — to use his own words— 
" a right to command the best from any 
present or past public servant." 

See "Gleanings of Past Years," vol. i. p. 243. 
70 



VII 

OTHER CONSERVATIVE TENDENCIES HIS 

SANGUINE TEMPERAMENT 

THERE were many other ways in 
which his conservative instincts 
showed themselves. In writing to me 
not long ago, he alluded to having the 
choice of an old-fashioned and a new- 
fashioned method of medical treatment; 
and in announcing his decision, he said : 
" As. is usual with me, conservatism wins 
the day." He would constantly refer, 
with regretful comparisons, to bygone 
times, especially to "good old Peel days." 
He resented departures from official eti- 
71 



MR. GLADSTONE 

quette, and the tendency which he saw 
in the modern politician to pander to the 
press, leading to indiscreet disclosures. 
He fancied that he detected a decided 
deterioration of manners in society, 
which specially manifested itself in a 
changed demeanor of men toward 
women, in increased familiarity, and in 
a lack of show of respect, which he 
would illustrate by the disuse of the 
reverential tone formerly observed in 
addressing one's superiors by " sir " — a 
term which, in his younger days, chil- 
dren habitually adopted toward their 
fathers. He disliked changes of fashion ; 
and one of his pet aversions was the in- 
troduction of smoking after dinner. He 
would recall a social dictum of the Lord 
Castlereagh,^ who was a magnate in 

1 The fourth Marquis of Londonderry, who was born in 
1805, succeeded to the Marquisate in 1854, and died in 187Z 
— half-uncle to the present Lord Londonderry. 

72 



OTHER CONSERVATIVE TENDENCIES 

fashionable society in the heyday of 
Mr. Gladstone's life, that no man ought 
to enter the society of ladies until four 
hours had elapsed after he had smoked 
a cigar. Mr. Gladstone equally disliked 
departures from established custom. He 
objected, for instance, to the assembling 
of the principal members of the Opposi- 
tion at dinner on the night before the 
opening of Parliament. He used to de- 
clare that such dinners were " not a cus- 
tom at all " ; that he had never attended 
one in his life, except at Devonshire 
House, during Lord Hartington's leader- 
ship; and that no more inconvenient 
mode of deliberating on the Queen's 
speech could possibly be devised. New- 
fangled doctrines appeared to Mr, Glad- 
stone to be still more objectionable than 
changes of customs. He had no patience 
with persons whom he regarded as fad- 
73 



MR. GLADSTONE 

dists and crotchet-mongers. In the cate- 
gory of fads and crotchets he would place, 
with some emphasis, such proposals as 
those relating to bimetallism and pro- 
portional representation, which he con- 
sidered to be " puerile " or " crazy." It 
was enough for him to know that, in 
England, on a gold monometallic basis 
there had been reared, and there rested, 
a solid and commanding fabric of com- 
mercial and financial prosperity, surpass- 
ing all the dreams and aspirations of his 
youth. It was enough for him to know 
that, with all its defects and anomalies, 
the existing system of political represen- 
tation produced, in a rough-and-ready 
manner, a tolerably faithful reflection of 
public opinion. He was all for " leaving 
well alone." It was with apprehension 
as well as dislike that he viewed the 
increasing predominance of plutocracy 
74 



OTHER CONSERVATIVE TENDENCIES 

over hereditary aristocracy. I have heard 
him exclaim, " I am a worshipper of the 
hereditary principle — hereditary title, 
and hereditary possessions. Would that 
it were not so often abused as it is in 
certain hands I " He would inveigh 
strongly against the luxury prevalent 
during the last years of his life, and 
against the extravagance of the style of 
modern living. 

These leanings toward conservatism 
and the past not unfrequently put him 
out of sympathy with the times. This 
was specially noticeable in the attitude 
which he assumed toward the fashionable 
so-called " imperialism " of the day. 
He deplored what he considered to be 
undue expenditure of public money on 
armaments. He declined to believe that 
great military establishments would stave 
off fits of panic. In his belief it was a 
75 



MR. GLADSTONE 

question of "the more you have the 
more you want." Analogously he had 
a deep-rooted aversion to annexations of 
territory. It was not because he wished 
to see his country belittled, or failed 
to have national greatness at heart, but 
he felt that there was a limit to the 
responsibilities which a government 
could prudently undertake — that there 
was a point at which the strength of 
administration would be overtaxed. An- 
other minor instance of his disregard of 
public opinion is afforded by his advo- 
cacy of the Channel Tunnel scheme, 
the opposition to which, real and gen- 
uine as it was and is likely to be, he 
treated as childish and chimerical. 

Notwithstanding, however, his linger- 
ing love for the past, he had unbounded 
faith in the future, and in the destiny 
of his own country. Only two consider- 
76 



OTHER CONSERVATIVE TENDENCIES 

ations seemed to cause him apprehen- 
sion. I remember his addressing to me 
some solemn words one day, about eleven 
years ago, after he had been talking in 
his usually hopeful strain. "There is," 
he said, "one danger ahead which I 
foresee, and which I fear for the sake 
of the country. It is not Ireland; it is 
not the character of the measures which 
may be advocated and introduced — 
the good sense of the people will take 
care of that. What I fear is the want 
of principle which I fancy I see in some 
of the men who are likely to occupy 
conspicuous positions in the future." 
The other tendency which caused him 
concern was the change of attitude which 
the two principal parties of the state 
appeared to be assuming, and to be 
likely to assume, toward one another. 
He was afraid that one party would be 
77 



MR. GLADSTONE 

given to bid too much against the other, 
with the result that the pace would be 
unnecessarily forced. Apart from these 
considerations, he utterly disbelieved the 
scares of the timid. He uniformly de- 
clined to heed the cry of " Wolf I" He 
scouted the idea of national retrogres- 
sion, and placed continued progress 
among the primary articles of his political 
creed. He was an optimist of optimists. 
Addington said of Mr. Pitt, " He was 
the most sanguine man I ever knew." 
Had Addington lived twice the number 
of years allotted to the span of life, he 
would probably have had to qualify this 
saying by excepting Mr. Gladstone. 
To this sanguine temperament may be, 
in great part, attributed a habit of shut- 
ting his eyes to disagreeable facts, espe- 
cially when such facts conflicted with 
his own thoughts, which were at times 
78 



OTHER CONSERVATIVE TENDENCIES 

the offspring of his wishes. He would 
often take insufficient account of diffi- 
culties, because they would, as he at 
least flattered himself, solve themselves. 
But he might well have exclaimed, as 
did Sir Robert Walpole, " I never heard 
that it is a crime to hope for the best"; ^ 
and if Mr. Gladstone's habitual frame of 
mind at times misled him, it was more 
often a great stay and help to him. It 
would, more than anything else, main- 
tain his spirits in times of great trouble 
and anxiety. " He was " — to use an 
expressive phrase attributed to Sydney 
Smith — " like a barometer ; the more 
you pressed him, the higher he rose." 2 
He could always see a rift in the clouds; 
he could always detect in the most de- 
pressing outlook some cause for comfort; 

1 See Mr. John Morley's " Walpole," p. 229. 

2 See " Life and Times of Sydney Smith," by Stuart J. Reid, 
p. 330 (4th edition). 

79 



MR. GLADSTONE 

he could always spy in the densest fog 
land ahead. With him bad news was 
always exaggerated. He declined to 
believe that anything which he consid- 
ered a great calamity would happen till 
it actually occurred. Though defeat 
might stare him in the face, he would 
rest assured up to the last moment that 
a means of averting it would be found. 
It was owing to this temperament that 
no untoward circumstance, no tragic 
event, no temporary rebuff or failure, 
disconcerted him. He hardly knew 
what despondency was. He had the 
hopefulness and cheerfulness which are 
usually associated only with the fervor 
of youth. 

Equally fervent was the extraordinary 
enthusiasm with which he took up ques- 
tions and advocated causes. When he 
had once convinced himself of the jus- 
80 



OTHER CONSERVATIVE TENDENCIES 

tice of a cause, he would throw his 
whole heart and soul into the further- 
ance of it; so much so, indeed, that his 
enthusiasm may at times have almost 
amounted to fanaticism. But enthusi- 
asm, being as it is a great power in 
human affairs, was one of the principal 
causes of his potent influence. No more 
marked instance of this characteristic of 
Mr. Gladstone can be found than the 
manner in which he pleaded the cause 
of Home Rule for Ireland. In fact, 
during the last decade of his public life, 
when he was conscious that time with 
him was short, he was apt to be less 
scrupulous than he usually was about 
the means to which he had resort, if the 
particular end in view seemed to him to 
be thereby better promoted. 



8i 



VIII 

HIS ALLEGED LOVE OF POWER AND HIS 
MANY-SIDEDNESS 

INSATIABLE love of power and 
"greed of office" have constantly 
been ascribed to Mr. Gladstone ; and his 
actions, lying under this suspicion, have 
often been misconstrued. The fact is, 
there were two Mr. Gladstones. There 
was Mr. Gladstone the student, the 
man of letters, the lover of a quiet life in 
his peaceful house in Wales. There was 
also Mr. Gladstone the political gladi- 
ator, the statesman, the lover of Down- 
ing Street and the House of Commons. 
82 



HIS ALLEGED LOVE OF POWER 

The two Mr. Gladstones were often, if 
not constantly, in conflict with one 
another, resulting in part from the rest- 
lessness which is inherent in impulsive 
natures. Sometimes one got the upper 
hand ; at other times, the other. When 
the love of power or passion for the 
work of government seized him, it was 
not vulgar ambition to acquire notoriety, 
display, or social standing; for he was 
essentially unworldly. It was a con- 
sciousness of abilities superior to those 
around him. It was the self-esteem of 
the man who, according to Aristotle, 
" thinks himself worthy of great things, 
being in truth worthy." It was ambi- 
tion in the highest sense of the word — 
ambition to turn to public account those 
talents with which nature had endowed 
him ; and he felt he could not turn them 
to such account unless he were placed in 
^3 



MR. GLADSTONE 

a position of responsibility and authority, 
and had the opportunity of being in 
command. Indeed, he was only ready 
to emerge from his peaceful abode at 
Hawarden and return to the fray when 
it appeared to him that he had a distinct 
mission to perform, and when he thought 
that he saw his way to do something 
which ought to be done, and which he 
believed that others could not do. When 
he conceived that he had completed the 
task which he had set himself to ac- 
complish, or felt that he could no longer 
serve with advantage his Sovereign and 
his country, he was equally anxious — 
and far oftener so than the public knew 
— to retire again into private life. Con- 
fidential contact with him would have 
soon satisfied any one how genuinely 
and frequently tenure of office was a 
gene to him. It was not that he failed 
84 



HIS ALLEGED LOVE OF POWER 

to take interest in his ministerial work. 
Far from it. He was more than scrupu- 
lous and assiduous in his attentions to the 
affairs of state. It was not only that the 
sense of public duty was strongly in- 
grained in him. He was also proud of 
the honor, and most conscious of the high 
trust and responsibility which the posi- 
tion of being first minister of the Crown 
imposed upon him. 

But politics were far from being the 
all in all with Mr. Gladstone. He had 
many other and greater loves — his theo- 
logical studies, his antiquarian researches, 
his general reading, the application of 
his pen to literary purposes. There were, 
indeed, no limits to the versatility of his 
mind. 

First and foremost came his passion 
for reading. He read slowly and most 
conscientiously. He never skipped a 
85 



MR. GLADSTONE 

page or a line. But the number of books 
through which he plodded every year 
was astounding. The passages with 
which he was struck he marked in the 
margin with a pencil-line or with N. B., 
or with both; and when he saw reason 
to demur, he made use of the Italian 
conjunction — ma. By dint of unremit- 
ting application, aided by a strikingly 
retentive memory and well-ordered mind, 
he acquired a stock of knowledge on a 
vast variety of subjects, which would 
have been extraordinary even for a man 
whose whole life had been that of a 
student. 

It was Homer whom Mr. Gladstone 
most delighted in reading and studying. 
To him the Iliad and the Odyssey were, 
with the exception of the Bible, "the 
greatest works ever composed." Homer, 
he used to say, was "poetry-making, 
86 



HIS ALLEGED LOVE OF POWER 

religion-making, and nation-making all 
combined " ; and of all the " extraordi- 
nary characteristics " of the ancient poet, 
the one which most impressed Mr. Glad- 
stone was " the use and choice which 
Homer made of epithets." Horace was 
another of his classical loves; and the 
translation of the Odes afforded a great 
resource to Mr. Gladstone when his eye- 
sight failed him. Theological study was 
a still greater attraction to him ; and the 
works of this nature on which he set most 
store were those of Bishop Butler, whom 
he regarded as " the greatest and most 
profound writer among the divines and 
prelates of the Church of England." 

Poetry of varied kinds appealed to 
him. He believed that the supremacy 
among poets could not be questioned. 
Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare were 
superior to any others. The difficulty 
87 



MR. GLADSTONE 

with him was to whom the fourth place 
should be assigned. For that place he 
considered that there were four competi- 
tors — ^schylus, Virgil, Milton, and 
Goethe; and, on the whole, he was in- 
clined to give the preference himself to 
Goethe. 

There was probably no modern British 
author whom Mr. Gladstone admired so 
much as Walter Scott. The re-reading 
of the Waverley Novels was a constant 
source of delight to him through life; 
and, notwithstanding that they have gone 
rather out of fashion during the last half 
of the nineteenth century, he felt sure 
that they were works that would be 
" immortal." In his judgment the two 
chefs d'ceuvre of the series were " The 
Bride of Lammermoor " and " Kenil- 
worth." He beUeved that ^schylus 
was the only other man who could have 
2>Z 



HIS ALLEGED LOVE OF POWER 

written the first; and that the second 
could have been produced by no one 
else but Shakespeare. It is worth noting 
in connection with his admiration for 
Walter Scott that he ranked Lockhart's 
life of the great novelist " the first of all 
biographies." 

Cognate to his literary studies was the 
pleasure with which he perused cata- 
logues of old books. He welcomed the 
receipt of lists of second-hand books 
from booksellers all over the kingdom ; 
and it was a special interest to him, 
when he went through the catalogues, 
to see if any of his own works were in- 
cluded among the lots, and at what price 
they were marked. By constant and 
continuous purchases during many years, 
he succeeded in putting together a library 
of about 28,000 volumes ; and when he 
recently came to rearrange his books, for 
89 



MR. GLADSTONE 

transfer to a building in the village of 
Hawarden, he was rather distressed to 
find that duplicates amounted to nearly 
three per cent. ; but as he had no cata- 
logue, and had to trust entirely to his 
memory, the wonder was that the per- 
centage of duplicates was not higher. 

Borrowing the phraseology of political 
economy, and substituting mind for mat- 
ter, he would liken reading to "imports," 
and writing to " exports." In his own 
case, vast and manifold though the " im- 
ports" were, they were nearly balanced 
by the " exports," both in amount and 
diversity. A good illustration of this 
readiness of pen, combined with versa- 
tility of mind, is to be found in a recent 
magazine article.^ A list is there given 
of the contributions which Mr. Gladstone 
made to that magazine from time to 

1 See "Nineteenth Century," June, 1898. 
90 



HIS ALLEGED LOVE OF POWER 

time. It appears that in the space of 
nineteen and a half years the number 
of his contributions amounted to no less 
than sixty-seven, and they included such 
heterogeneous subjects as Homer and 
Sheridan, the Olympian System and 
Free Trade, the " Slicing of Hector " 
and "Robert Elsmere," Bishop Butler 
and Professor Huxley, the Dawn of 
Creation and the Queen's Jubilee, Queen 
Elizabeth and Daniel O'Connell, the 
"Color Sense" and "Electoral Facts," 
the Solar Theory and Oppressed Na- 
tionalities. 

The rapidity with which he wrote 
somewhat militated against neatness and 
polish of style. But his prose compo- 
sitions have, I think, been generally un- 
derrated. Though the oratorical style 
ran through them, yet in his volumes of 
" Gleanings," for instance, there are often 
91 



MR. GLADSTONE 

to be found passages containing great 
beauty of diction, and rising to a con- 
siderable height of literary excellence. 
However that may be, he was decidedly 
critical about the style of others, and 
most exacting about grammatical cor- 
rectness. 

A grammatical error, to which he had 
a rooted objection in spite of its being 
countenanced by many authors of ac- 
knowledged standing, was the use of the 
"false genitive."^ I remember once re- 
ceiving quite a homily from him on his 
having detected, in a letter which I had 
written by his instructions, the introduc- 
tion of this misuse of the genitive. He 

1 To give an illustration of the false genitive : " I object to 
my friend being abused." In order to be correct one should 
say: "I object to my friend^s being abused," which is awk- 
ward J or, " I object to the abusing of my friend." If it were 
a case of using the pronoun the grammatical offence would be 
at once apparent. No one would say : " I object to Aim being 
abused " j but ** I object to Ais being abused." 

92 



HIS ALLEGED LOVE OF POWER 

was always on the lookout for it when 
he was reading, and had, he said, traced 
the " vulgarism " back to the time of 
Charles II. He believed that it was 
nowhere to be found in Shakespeare, or 
in such pure writers of English as Addi- 
son, Swift, and Johnson, and he defied 
any one to discover its occurrence in the 
Bible or in Macaulay's works. The two 
men of recent days whom he regarded 
as the greatest masters of English writing 
were Cardinal Newman and Mr. Ruskin. 
Perhaps Mr. Gladstone's own pen 
showed to greatest advantage in inditing 
letters and notes, and in no respect more 
than in the wealth of expression. He 
might have to write a dozen or more 
letters in rapid succession, offering ap- 
pointments or announcing the Queen's 
pleasure about dignities and honors. 
Each note would not only be quite 
93 



MR. GLADSTONE 

differently worded, but in the structure 
of no two of them would there be any- 
thing in common. Nobody had a hap- 
pier knack of saying the right thing 
when it w^as a question of tendering con- 
gratulations, paying somebody a com- 
pliment, expressing sympathy, or offering 
encouragement to those situated in dif- 
ficult circumstances. 

His own handwriting was neat; but, 
owing to the curious formation of some 
of the letters of the alphabet, it was not 
easy to read, at least in later days, unless 
one had acquired great familiarity with 
it. He highly appreciated clear hand- 
writing of others. Nothing tried his 
patience more than letters written in 
niggling or scrawling hands. He liked 
a bold and large character, of the kind 
of which old Etonians are apt fondly 
to claim a monopoly; but he himself 
94 



HIS ALLEGED LOVE OF POWER 

awarded the palm to the handwriting of 
one of the most distinguished of Har- 
rovians, Lord Palmerston, — a hand- 
writing which Mr. Gladstone regarded 
as "truly noble." 

His reading and writing, however, 
versatile though it was, by no means 
exhausted his many-sidedness. He was 
a decidedly good linguist. The French 
language came very easily to him, and 
he not only read and talked it freely, 
but he could make a public speech in it. 
He was equally at home with Italian, 
and he used to deplore the neglect of the 
study of that language, to which our 
language " owes so much." Though he 
did not speak German, he read it with 
facility. While he neither was, nor 
claimed to be, a connoisseur of art, yet 
he took great delight in it. He was a 
regular visitor of picture-galleries, and 
95 



MR. GLADSTONE 

often frequented shops containing oh jets 
d'art In the course of his life, he 
made several collections. At one 
time it was china, at another time 
ivories, and at another time (so- 
called) Italian jewels. There was no 
pretension about his collections. The 
attraction to him was not intrinsic value, 
but love for the beautiful, and the in- 
terest which the exercise of his own 
judgment and taste furnished. To him 
throughout life, variety of interest, taken 
up with genuine zest, was a necessary- 
concomitant of activity of mind ; while 
to variety of employment he attributed 
the secret of his being able to throw off 
so easily the cares of state, and thus of 
retaining abnormal powers of vitality to 
such an advanced age. 



96 



IX 



HIS ENERGY AND POWERS OF CONCENTRA- 
TION HIS INDUSTRY METHOD 

SYSTEM OF WORK 

NOT less remarkable than Mr. Glad- 
stone's multiplicity of interests 
was his energy, of which his mind could 
call to its aid an apparently unlimited 
amount. By dint of that energy which 
welled up from the depths of his being, 
he was able to take heroic resolves, and 
to overcome obstacles which to others 
seemed insurmountable. 

Still more extraordinary than his en- 
ergy was the way in which he would, in 
97 



MR. GLADSTONE 

the most dogged manner, concentrate his 
whole mind on the particular subject with 
which at the moment he was occupied. 
With him it was one thing at a time. 
Whatever he might happen to be doing, 
he did it with all his might and main, 
with a determination which it was neces- 
sary to witness in order to appreciate to 
the full. It occurred to one who was 
a close witness shrewdly to liken Mr. 
Gladstone's mind to a ship constructed 
on the latest and most approved princi- 
ples, in that it consisted of water-tight 
compartments. Though no man had a 
wider range of thought, yet when at the 
bidding of his will the partition doors 
were shut down, nothing that might 
happen elsewhere in the vessel would 
have any disturbing effect on the particu- 
lar compartment in which for the moment 
his mind was concentrated. Nor was 
98 



AS A WORKER 

there any limit to the pains which he 
would bestow on any work on which his 
heart was really bent. 

It was the same with his amusements 
as with his more serious occupations. 
When engaged in tree-felling, he thought 
of nothing but his axe, and how best to 
wield it. When at the theatre, he threw 
his heart and soul into the piece; he 
was keen to follow every incident of the 
plot, and every sentence of the actors. 
To music he would listen appreciatively 
and attentively, and in his last days 
music seemed more than anything else 
to distract his thoughts and allay his 
sufferings. One of the few games which 
he was wont to play after dinner was 
backgammon, and no child could have 
played the game with greater zest. He 
was as pleased by winning as he was 
disappointed by losing. He rarely, if 
99 



MR. GLADSTONE 

ever, touched cards; he considered that 
they conduced too much to gambling, 
of which he had a horror. He once said 
to me that he regarded gambling as 
" nothing short of damnable. What 
can be the fun of winning other people's 
money *? " He considered that one was 
as much accountable to God for the ex- 
penditure of one's money as for the use 
of one's talents. And " How could this 
be so," he would say, " when one's money 
disappeared of its own accord ? " 

Anything like impurity of thought or 
language was as abhorrent to him as 
gambling. In this, as in many other 
respects, the boy was father of the man. 
A characteristic story is told of him by 
more than one of his contemporaries at 
Eton. There was given at the " Chris- 
topher " an annual dinner, which was at- 
tended by the leading boys of the school. 

100 



AS A WORKER 

It was customary on the occasion to 
give an improper toast. " Gladstone 
was present once, and on the proposal 
of the toast he turned his glass down- 
ward." One must cast one's self back 
to the days of boyhood to appreciate 
adequately the strength of character 
which such independence of action 
necessitated. 

Unceasing industry, to which he owed 
so much in life, was a habit which he 
also acquired in boyhood. At Eton he 
had, according to his own admission, 
attained a fair amount of dogged dili- 
gence with his school-work. He ascribed 
this diligence to the influence of Dr. 
Hawtrey. But Mr. Gladstone did not 
consider that he knew what real work 
was till he commenced his university 
career. At Oxford, for which, till the 
end of his days, he cherished such filial 

lOI 



MR. GLADSTONE 

affection, he aimed at devoting twelve 
hours a day to study, and he owned to 
keeping up that average for a consider- 
able while. But the time upon which, 
while an undergraduate, he looked back 
with the greatest satisfaction, was spent 
in one of the long vacations at Cuddes- 
don in company with Mr. Anstice ^ and 
my father,^ both of whom were Mr. 
Gladstone's seniors by one year. To 
those weeks of assiduous reading he be- 
lieved that he mostly owed his success 
in the final schools, resulting in the at- 
tainment of a "double first," which he 
regarded as a much better test of a man's 
worth in 1831 than now, because in 
those days the attainment of a "double 
first" involved working up at one and 
the same time subjects for "mathe- 

1 Joseph Anstice, a distinguished scholar (1808-36). 

2 Walter Kerr Hamilton, Bishop of Salisbury (1808-69). 

102 



AS A WORKER 

matics" as well as "greats," and being 
examined simultaneously in both schools. 

This faculty for industry, which was 
matured at Oxford, stood by him 
throughout his long career, and, extraor- 
dinary as were his powers of work till 
within a few months of his death, it is 
probable that persons who were only 
associated with him during the last 
twenty years of his life can form but 
an adequate idea of the prodigiousness 
of these powers when he was in the 
prime of life. 

His industry was greatly furthered by 
economy of time, which he exercised in 
the most rigid manner. He never wasted 
a single moment; every chink in the 
day was filled up ; and he consequently 
always seemed able to get through any- 
thing and everything, thus constituting 
a good illustration of the paradox that 
103 



MR. GLADSTONE 

the more busy a man is the more leisure 
does he apparently possess. This habit 
of economizing time was aided by a 
kindred habit of punctuality; he never 
failed to keep an appointment to the 
moment. His daily life was as regular 
as clockwork. Order and method, to 
which he attached the greatest impor- 
tance " as a means of increasing power 
and efficiency for good," he carried to 
great perfection. He was a pattern of 
tidiness. No book was out of its place 
in his room. There was never any litter 
on his table; and every drawer in it 
was arranged most nattily. He would 
resort to ingenious reconstructions of a 
sentence in order to avoid an erasure; 
and no blot was ever allowed to soil 
a page of his own letters. His papers 
were stowed away with unsurpassed 
neatness, and the muniment room, con- 
104 



AS A WORKER 

sisting of the fire-proof annex which he 
built a few years ago to his "sanctum" 
at Hawarden, will be the wonder and 
admiration of those who may some day 
have access to it. In that octagon cham- 
ber there will be found all the letters 
which he thought worth preserving out 
of his vast and varied correspondence, 
and also many memoranda and other 
papers of interest. The aggregate con- 
tents of the chamber must be enormous ; 
indeed, he made a computation that the 
letters alone amounted more nearly to 
100,000 than 50,000. 

His orderliness greatly helped him to 
keep pace with his correspondence and 
other work ; but a still greater assistance 
to him was his capacity for using other 
men's brains, and for reducing to a min- 
imum his own manual labor — in a 
word, the power which he had trained 
105 



MR. GLADSTONE 

himself to acquire of " devolving " work 
on others. " No man," he once wrote 
to me, "could dream, until by experi- 
ence he knew, to what extent devolution 
can be carried — how it strengthens the 
feeble knees, and thus sustains the faint- 
ing heart." By lengthened experience 
he had reduced devolution to a highly 
perfected system. Between himself and 
his principal private secretaries there 
were no secrets. It was, he held, essen- 
tial that they should see everything and 
know everything; otherwise their use- 
fulness might be materially impaired. 
Accordingly, in the absence of specific 
directions to the contrary, they were at 
liberty to open all his letters, no heed 
being taken of pleas for privacy, how- 
ever emphatic they might be, unless, 
indeed, resort had been had to two en- 
velopes. The letters when opened had 
1 06 



AS A WORKER 

to be so folded as to present as far as 
possible a uniform size, and the size 
which, with certain exceptions, was re- 
quired to be observed, was the size 
given by notepaper which, when both 
sides of it are laid out, folds into three — 
a size to which the folding of larger 
paper conveniently adapts itself The 
letters when folded had to be docketed. 
The docket was made either on the letter 
itself, if space permitted, or on a wrapper 
consisting of a half-sheet of square or 
foolscap paper, in which the letter was 
enveloped. The docket was headed 
with the date — the day, month, and 
year. Under the date came the name 
of the correspondent, and then followed 
the important part of the docket. If it 
was a letter which was extremely brief, 
or which seemed to require to be read by 
Mr. Gladstone in full, a cross (+) in the 
107 



MR. GLADSTONE 

left-hand corner of the docket served to 
indicate this to him, and the notation 
of the bare subject or subjects then suf- 
ficed. If it were a letter which appa- 
rently did not need to be personally pe- 
rused by him, or were one written in a 
diffuse or illegible style, there had to be 
made a concise precis of its contents 
clearly written. Below the precis there 
might, at the discretion of the private 
secretary, be drafted the terms or heads 
of a reply, for Mr. Gladstone's approval. 
When his correspondence reached him 
in this advanced condition, he proceeded to 
dispose of each letter in one of three ways, 
in the choice of which he was mainly influ- 
enced by the importance of the writer and 
of the subject-matter. Either he would 
write the answer himself, or, after settling 
the gist of the reply, he would him- 
self prefix the address and affix his 
1 08 



AS A WORKER 

signature, writing (as he called it) the 
" head " and the " tail," or he would 
leave the correspondent to be answered 
by the private secretary. Every letter 
which he wrote with his own hand, ex- 
cept on really trivial matters, had to be 
copied. Whether the copy was entered 
in a large letter-book, or made on a sep- 
arate sheet, depended on his having 
made one " tick " ( y/) or two " ticks " 
(v/y/) at the bottom of the first page. 
His usual direction was that recourse 
should be had to the first alternative; 
the second one, as a rule, being adopted 
when the letter was one of supreme im- 
portance, or one to which he was likely 
to have to refer immediately. It was 
left to the private secretary to keep and 
to arrange all letters when answered, and 
all papers when dealt with, except some 
chosen few, which Mr. Gladstone had 
109 



MR. GLADSTONE 

some reason or other for having in his 
own custody; and the indication for 
such separate treatment was that he re- 
folded them himself more narrowly. 

It was only his important correspon- 
dence of which he disposed regularly 
day by day. With the rest of it, which 
was unceremoniously labelled "rubbish," 
he dealt once a week after it had been 
carefully sorted and classified; and by 
this means he secured a cursory survey 
of the whole of his correspondence at an 
extraordinarily small expenditure of labor 
and time. To him the nature of the 
"rubbish" was not without significance; 
for he regarded it as an indication of 
the drift of public opinion, and of the 
questions on which the attention of 
the country was principally fixed, at the 
moment. To all the writers, individual 
and corporate (except to those who were 

no 



AS A WORKER 

well-established lunatics), he required 
acknowledgments or answers to be sent, 
though some of the replies might be 
couched in stereotyped phraseology, and 
others embodied on a lithographed form. 

A clearly defined system of devolution 
was more important and necessary to Mr. 
Gladstone than to most modern states- 
men; for he would never take advan- 
tage of the facilities of shorthand ; and 
consequently all other " short cuts " had 
in his case to be turned to the fullest 
account, in order to economize time, 
which he had such a horror of wasting. 

Equally abhorrent to him was every 
other waste — whether of stationery, 
food, or money. The administration of 
his private affairs was essentially careful. 
A dignified frugality characterized his 
household arrangements. But, while 
there was no ostentation, there was no- 
III 



MR. GLADSTONE 

thing mean or stingy about him. He 
was always ready to subscribe to chari- 
table objects, and to afford relief where 
relief was really wanted. He, indeed, 
not unfrequently did most liberal acts. 
He was careful to know exactly how his 
affairs " stood " ; and even in time of the 
greatest pressure he did not fail to keep 
his own personal accounts. He paid 
frequent visits to his London bankers, 
" Sir S. Scott and Co.," which firm had, 
to his regret, lost its individuality by 
having latterly amalgamated with a joint 
stock company. He watched with 
regularity the movement of stocks in 
which he had an interest, perusing with 
care the lists of securities perodically 
sent to him by his brokers at Glasgow, 
Messrs. Watson and Smith. But the 
item which afforded him most satis- 
faction was any receipt which he might 

112 



AS A WORKER 

derive from his literary labors. Such 
earnings he entered separately in a 
little book kept for the purpose ; and 
the entries were made with that pride 
which is characteristic of amateur authors. 
There was another small book which 
with equal regularity he entered up al- 
most daily, and that was the diary which 
he kept throughout life. It was a ledger- 
like-looking volume in miniature. In it 
there were, I believe, no commentaries 
made or opinions expressed. The en- 
tries were strictly limited to recording 
in the most succinct manner the things 
which he had done, and the persons to 
whom he had written. During a few 
months preceding his last illness, he did 
write down some notes which may be 
of use to his biographer. But he was 
never to be persuaded to undertake an 
autobiographical work — not even by an 
113 



MR. GLADSTONE 

astounding offer which was once made 
to him by a respectable firm of publishers 
in the United States, though the offer 
had, he admitted, temptations for him 
for the sake of those who would succeed 
him. He used at times to complain 
that by the free use made of his corre- 
spondence in the Lives of some of his 
contemporaries, his own biography was 
being written piecemeal with consequent 
disadvantages ; and latterly he exercised 
much greater caution about permitting 
the publication of his own letters. 



114 



X 



HIS ADMINISTRATIVE CAPACITY AND COM- 
MAND OF TEMPER A DAY's WORK 

ONLY those who had official inter- 
course with Mr. Gladstone could 
adequately gauge the administrative 
capacity which he showed while holding 
high office under the Crown. Indeed, 
his capacity for transacting public busi- 
ness, to which for so many years he 
applied himself with such assiduity and 
zest, could not be surpassed. It is de- 
cision combined with sound judgment 
which perhaps more than anything else 
constitutes the root of good administra- 
tes 



MR. GLADSTONE 

tion. A man who sees too clearly both 
sides of a question, and thus wavers be- 
tween different opinions, will never prop- 
erly cope with the work that devolves 
upon a minister. It is better for him to 
make up his mind wrongly than not at 
all. He should, of course, weigh ma- 
turely all the considerations that bear on 
the subject which is before him; and in 
doing so he will do well to think of the 
morrow as well as of the day ; but there 
must be no timidity about the conse- 
quences of his acts. He must be pre- 
pared to take upon himself an unlimited 
amount of responsibility. He must be 
willing to master details, however, dry 
and technical they may be; for the 
knowledge which he has of the business 
in hand must be thorough. He should 
be resourceful and suggestive. If one 
solution of a knotty point is not success- 
ii6 



HIS ADMINISTRATIVE CAPACITY 

ful, he must be ready with a second. 
The confidence between himself and the 
heads of his department should be mu- 
tual. He is right to be critical, but he 
should not be hypercritical. Let him 
amend freely a draft memorandum or 
dispatch in passages which incorrectly 
represent his views or which are glaringly 
faulty. But let him accept the draft if, 
on the whole, it carries out his ideas, 
though perhaps not exactly in the form 
in which he would have written it him- 
self The substance is that which is 
material, not the form. A minister, 
moreover, must have the faculty of dis- 
charging public business with prompti- 
tude. He should always be up to time 
with his work. The wheels of the min- 
isterial coach should never be clogged 
with arrears. He must be scrupulous 
about keeping his appointments with 
117 



MR. GLADSTONE 

punctuality, so that he may waste neither 
his own time, nor that of those around 
him. He must be easily accessible to 
others. Though he cannot be too busi- 
nesslike, yet he must not be "too busy" 
to attend to this or that matter. He is 
right to be a strict disciplinarian; but 
he should not be wanting in considera- 
tion for others, or unmindful of their 
convenience. As in domestic circles, so 
in ministerial circles — the master to a 
great extent makes the servant. All 
these qualifications for success as an ad- 
ministrator were possessed in a marked 
degree by Mr. Gladstone, who, more- 
over, combined with them a high sense 
of honor and duty; and thus not only 
did he gain the confidence of all those 
who served under him or worked for 
him, but inspired them with zeal, loy- 
alty, and enthusiasm. One of the secrets 
ii8 



HIS ADMINISTRATIVE CAPACITY 

of this inspiration was that, while he was 
more than ordinarily exacting, or (to use 
his own words) " a ferocious master," he 
was ever ready to mete out, perhaps too 
lavishly, praise to those who had done 
what he considered to be meritorious 
work. He was free with his criticism. But 
it was not all criticism, and no approval. 
He never hesitated to award praise where 
praise was due, any more than he hesi- 
tated to resort to censure when in his 
judgment there had been negligence or 
want of intelligence. 

Another attraction of the man to those 
who were privileged to be brought in 
close contact with him was that he was 
rarely, if ever, cross. He had by nature 
a certain amount of temper, but he had 
the faculty of keeping it under wonder- 
ful control. His highly strung nervous 
temperament, particularly when any ex- 
119 



MR. GLADSTONE 

citing incident was impending, such as 
the delivery of an important speech, 
might at times produce a certain fretful- 
ness and fussiness, which the presence 
of any one not quite in touch with him 
would convert into slight irritability. 
But notwithstanding all the many wor- 
ries and trials which necessarily beset a 
minister, and which probably beset Mr. 
Gladstone to an unusual degree, he was 
seldom heard to say a hasty word, and 
never heard to use coarse language. 
Occasionally, it is true, he showed con- 
siderable impatience. He was somewhat 
unreasonable about waiting for a reply 
to a note, or for a decision from, an indi- 
vidual to whom he had perhaps made 
an offer, or put a question requiring 
much consideration and deliberation. 
Such impatience, however, did not pro- 
ceed from loss of temper. It was the 



HIS ADMINISTRATIVE CAPACITY 

result of an impetuous nature, and an 
inability to brook what appeared to him 
to be undue delay. 

What harassed him most and seemed 
to place the severest strain upon him 
was anything in the nature of personal 
questions, such as dissension in the 
Cabinet, a threat of resignation from a 
colleague, an application from a friend 
which he thought unreasonable, a de- 
cision which involved the balancing 
of the claims of one individual against 
those of another for political preferment. 
He was also apt to be specially worried 
when he had under his consideration ap- 
pointments to high places in the Church, 
feeling as he did that they entailed un- 
usual responsibility upon him. Apart 
from these occasions, he was singularly 
calm, collected, and self-possessed, no 
matter how seriously " out of joint " 

121 



MR. GLADSTONE 

times with him might be. I remember 
seeing him on the morning after his 
Home Rule Bill had been rejected by 
the House of Commons in 1886. The 
prevalent impression out of doors, no 
doubt, was that any one venturing to 
intrude upon him that morning would 
have found him vexed, if not angered, 
and mortified, if not morose. He was, 
however, on the contrary, perfectly self- 
composed, quietly reading a novel, 
which seemed to interest him more than 
the result of the division of the previous 
night. He put his book down with 
quite an effort, and did not exhibit the 
smallest symptom of rancor or resent- 
ment. He admitted the gravity of the 
catastrophe, but declared that his only 
concern was the unhappy portion of the 
United Kingdom whose lot he had 
hoped to make happier. 
122 



HIS ADMINISTRATIVE CAPACITY 

During the years in which, as private 
secretary, I was brought in closest con- 
tact with him (1880-85), he was well 
advanced in age, and had to nurse his 
strength to the utmost. Accordingly, a 
day's work to him at that time assumed 
a proportion very different to that which 
it assumed when he was younger and 
more vigorous. But during his second 
administration, his powers of work were 
still considerable. No matter how late 
he had been detained over-night at the 
House of Commons, he seldom rose 
later than nine o'clock. After breakfast, 
he would peruse the morning's news- 
papers, and then, till about eleven 
o'clock generally, devote the remainder 
of the time to the book that he hap- 
pened to have in hand. If public 
business was specially heavy or urgent, 
he would resist the temptation of his 
123 



MR. GLADSTONE 

book, and busy himself with drawing up 
a memorandum or writing some letter. 
But he disliked being disturbed before 
the recognized hour at which his official 
day began. At eleven o'clock, or a little 
later, he appeared in his official room; 
and between that hour and luncheon- 
time he would interview the govern- 
ment " whip," and dispose of his corre- 
spondence and other papers, which had 
by that time been reduced to a manage- 
able form, and were brought to him by 
his private secretary. He would also 
see any colleague or, other person with 
whom he had made an appointment; 
but he resented the intrusion of unex- 
pected visitors, however urgent might 
be their business, and however good 
their claims were to be admitted to his 
presence. Indeed, if one who was not a 
persona grata presented himself without 
124 



HIS ADMINISTRATIVE CAPACITY 

due warning, Mr. Gladstone's face would 
assume a very black look. After lunch- 
eon, he would take either a short drive 
or a short walk, and then present himself 
at the House of Commons, being careful 
to arrange his arrival there at the nick 
of time.^ Unless his continued presence 
in the House was necessary, he would 
leave it for his accustomed cup of tea at 
five o'clock. He preferred retracing his 
steps to Downing Street for this purpose; 
but, if that were not possible, tea was 
served to him in his room behind the 
Speaker's chair. Reentering the House, 
he would rarely leave his seat on the 
Treasury bench till eight o'clock, when 
he again returned to his official residence 

1 One of the means which Mr. Gladstone devised for saving 
his time in the House of Commons was an arrangement, which 
he made in the Parliament of 1880-85 with the authorities of 
the House, that all questions addressed to the Leader should be 
placed at the end of the list on the notice-paper — an arrange- 
ment from which his successors have derived material advantage. 

125 



MR. GLADSTONE 

for dinner. The sense of public duty 
was so strong upon him that he could 
seldom be persuaded to remain at home 
in the evening, however fagged he might 
be ; and immediately after he had dined, 
he drove back to the House. There he 
would stay till the end of the sitting, 
when he almost invariably walked home. 
No matter how late it was, he would 
never take any further nourishment be- 
yond an occasional cup of tea, and with- 
out a moment's dawdling he would 
retire to bed. However exciting might 
be the scene which he had quitted, his 
power of falling asleep, almost at once, 
rarely deserted him — a power which he 
counted among the principal blessings 
of his life. " He put off his cares when 
he put off his clothes," as Sir Robert 
Walpole said of himself ^ 

1 See ** Walpole," by Mr. John Morley, p. 109. 
126 



HIS ADMINISTRATIVE CAPACITY 

If Parliament were not sitting, the pro- 
gramme of Mr. Gladstone's afternoons 
was slightly varied. Guided by the 
weather, he took a longer walk or longer 
drive, which generally ended in his pay- 
ing a call on some friend at about five 
o'clock. On his return home, he was 
ready again to attend to business matters ; 
but so far as the interval till dinner was 
not required to be devoted to this pur- 
pose, he would give himself up to relax- 
ation by reading and resting. He would, 
more often than not, dine at the houses of 
friends, or, when opportunities occurred, 
he would present himself at " The Club " 
or at " Grillions " ; and after walking the 
whole or part of the way home, he 
would straightway retire to his bedroom. 



127 



XI 



HOW MR. GLADSTONE EXERCISED CROWN 
PATRONAGE AND JUDGED CHARACTER 

ONE of the most difficult duties 
which a Prime Minister of Eng- 
land has to discharge is the appoint- 
ment of the right men to political and 
permanent offices, and the bestowal of 
decorations and hereditary titles with 
proper discrimination. What adds 
vastly to the difficulty is that he is 
rarely a free agent, and can rarely exer- 
cise his own unfettered judgment, so 
many are the political considerations and 
party exigencies that come into play. 
128 



HIS EXERCISE OF PATRONAGE 

Mistakes are consequently often not the 
Prime Minister's own making; though 
he is none the less himself responsible to 
the Queen and the public for every rec- 
ommendation which he may submit. 
Mr. Gladstone regarded the exercise of 
Crown patronage as an important trust, 
to which he was bound to give his best 
attention. Attaching to its distribution 
there are inevitable cares and annoy- 
ances ; but he looked upon it as part of 
the ministerial day's work which could 
not be shirked ; and he would not have 
denied that he found a pleasurable ex- 
citement in proffering a lord-lieutenancy 
or a peerage/ an order or a baronetcy.^ 

1 Mr. Gladstone was responsible for the creation of 67 new 
peerages (of which 22 are now extinct) ; and on his recom- 
mendation 14 Scottish and Irish peers were called to the 
House of Lords. He was also responsible for 7 promotions in 
the peerage — i dukedom, 2 marquisates, I earl, and 3 vis- 
counts. 

2 The number of baronetcies created on Mr. Gladstone's 
recommendation was 97. 

129 



A 



MR. GLADSTONE 

He would fain have ruled out of con- 
sideration the claims of those who im- 
portunately pressed upon him their own 
deserts, and have applied to them the 
nurse's injunction to children, that " those 
who ask don't get." But such a counsel 
of perfection was not open to him any- 
more than it is to other prime ministers. 
The Crown patronage the disposal of 
which interested him most was ecclesi- 
astical preferment; and of all the ap- 
pointments due to his recommendation, 
that which probably afforded him the 
most genuine excitement was the ap- 
pointment of an Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, which fell to his lot in 1883. It 
may be said that the trouble which Mr. 
Gladstone took in making selections for 
ecclesiastical appointments was, on the 
whole, well repaid. His own know- 
ledge of the clerical world was always 
130 



HIS EXERCISE OF PATRONAGE 

great, and he would constantly supple- 
ment it by making inquiries of ecclesias- 
tical authorities, and by satisfying him- 
self personally of the preaching powers 
of a clergyman who stood high on the 
list for preferment. Assisted by such 
knowledge, and by the advice of such dig- 
nitaries of the Church as Dean Welles- 
ley of Windsor, and Dean Church of 
St. Paul's, Mr. Gladstone probably made 
fewer mistakes than most other prime 
ministers in discharging this duty, and 
in the discharge of it he was very scru- 
pulous about meting out, so far as was 
feasible, equal justice to the claims of 
High, Low, and Broad Churchmen. 

With respect to other patronage he 
took equal pains to weigh and sift 
claims with conscientiousness and impar- 
tiality. One of the rules to which he 
liked to adhere was not to appoint men 
131 



MR. GLADSTONE 

Straight into the Cabinet. Every aspi- 
rant to a high place in the counsels of 
the nation should, he thought, go through 
the " treadmill," however short a period 
of probation it might be. Indeed, with- 
out the training and discipline acquired 
by the holding of subordinate office, Mr. 
Gladstone considered that a man rarely 
became an administrator of the first 
class. He was occasionally hampered 
by this rule when he determined to ob- 
serve it; but what was more frequently 
responsible for his making an ill-judged 
appointment was his being endowed with 
a limited stock of what is commonly 
called " knowledge of the world." Like 
his great forerunner. Sir Robert Peel, 
Mr. Gladstone was not gifted with intu- 
itive perception of individual character. 
For the same reason he was not al- 
ways happy in the manner in which he 
132 



HIS EXERCISE OF PATRONAGE 

handled his colleagues. Sometimes he 
would insufficiently flatter their vanity. 
At other times he would not adequately 
recognize the position which they occu- 
pied or the power which they wielded 
He was apt to be somewhat easily im- 
posed upon and taken in. He unduly 
appraised the worth of some men, and 
unduly depreciated the value of others. 
This deficiency was in great part due to 
an almost childlike simplicity. He failed 
to " see through " some people, while 
others had no difficulty in appearing to 
him in a more favorable light than their 
qualities justified. Nor did he always 
take into sufficient account the deterio- 
rating effect of age on those who, in 
younger days, had rendered efficient ser- 
vice to the state, or the claims of a 
rising generation. He forgot that all men 
were not endowed with the same peren- 
^33 



MR. GLADSTONE 

nial powers as himself, and he disliked 
facing the pain and wrench of severing 
himself from old and valued colleagues, 
who had long borne with him the heat 
and brunt of the fight. The fact is, he 
could not bring himself to harden his 
heart. Again, he was somewhat lacking 
in a sense of proportion, which want 
palpably increased in his later days. His 
energy would hardly be less if some 
trifling matter were in question than if 
the fate of the Empire were at stake. 
He was apt to see everything through 
one pair of spectacles — the pair which 
he happened to be wearing at the mo- 
ment. Consequently his perspective 
was not always correct, and his judgment 
was not unfrequently at fault. Never- 
theless, when to his colleagues and those 
around him his judgment seemed most 
in error, it would happen — and indeed 
134 



HIS EXERCISE OF PATRONAGE 

not rarely — that he turned out to be 
right in the end. I have often heard it 
declared that it was absurd for him to 
attempt the passage of this and that bill, 
that such and such a step was bound to 
be fatal in the House of Commons, that 
he was living in a fool's paradise. But, 
in the long run, he proved to be a truer 
prophet than his critics. In fact, had he 
at times taken his own line more de- 
cidedly, he would have avoided many 
a political fiasco, which resulted from his 
disliking to break with his colleagues, 
and thus acquiescing in compromises. 

Closely connected with his want of 
discrimination was his credulity, and 
his inability to suspect mischief His 
credulity was unbounded; it, indeed, 
extended to a belief in the existence of 
certain things which are ordinarily re- 
garded as mythical. He regarded sus- 
135 



MR. GLADSTONE o^ v- . 

picion (to use his own words) as " the 
most obstinate among the besetting sins 
of politicians, even in men of upright 
nature." ^ This tendency to suspect 
everybody was, in his opmion, so com- 
mon to all statesmen that I have heard 
him say that the only exception that he 
knew was Lord Aberdeen. Mr. Glad- 
stone might well have included himself 
in the exceptions. There was not a 
particle of suspicion in his nature. With 
him there was " wisdom in a policy of 
trust, and folly in a policy of mistrust." 
This spirit of trustfulness actuated him 
in many ways, and in no way more than 
in his attitude toward "the masses." 
That attitude admits of being briefly 
summarized: "Trust them, and they 
will trust you." It was the same spirit 
that permeated his conduct toward 

1 See ** Gleanings of Past Years," vol i. p. 39. 
136 



HIS EXERCISE OF PATRONAGE 

Irishmen. So long as a " righteous 
policy" was pursued toward them, he 
believed that " all the follies that Ireland 
might commit, however much they 
hampered good government for the time 
being, could not in the end frustrate the 
action or endanger the security of the 
Empire." It was with him, " Be just, and 
fear not." 



137 



XII 

HIS ACHIEVEMENTS AND POWERS OF 
MEMORY 

CHARACTERIZED by great mod- 
esty and humility, even to a fault, 
Mr. Gladstone could rarely be induced to 
allude to his own parliamentary achieve- 
ments. But occasional glimpses of his 
mind would be forthcoming. Of the 
dozen Budgets^ for which he was re- 

1 The twelve Budgets with which Mr, Gladstone's name is 
connected were opened (i) on April i8, 1853; (2) on March 
6, 1854; (3) on July 18, 1859; (4) on February 10, i860; 
(5) on April 15, 1861 j (6) on April 3, 1862; (7) on April 
16, 1863; (8) on April 7, 1864; (9) on April 27, 1865; 
(10) on May 3, 1866; (11) on April 4, 1881 ; and (12) on 
April 4, 1882. He also brought in a supplementary Budget in 
connection with the Repeal of the Malt Duty on June 10, 
1880. 

138 



HIS POWERS OF MEMORY 

sponsible, the one which he considered 
to be by far his "greatest effort" (in 
every sense of the word) was his Budget 
of 1853, ^^^ principal feature of which 
-was the Succession Duty Bill. In con- 
nection with the construction of that mea- 
sure, he put forward his fullest powers, 
and he never displayed greater mas- 
tery of technical detail than in this con- 
nection. The only member of the gov- 
ernment from whom he derived material 
assistance was the Solicitor-General, Sir 
R. Bethell (afterward Lord Westbury) ; 
and to the piloting of the bill through 
committee he used to allude with evi- 
dent delight, recalling with laughter the 
duet-like character of the discussion, by 
reason of its being mainly carried on by 
" Malins " ^ and " Mullings." ^ He con- 

1 Mr. Marins, M. P. for Wallingford j afterward Vice- 
Chancellor Sir R. Malins. 

2 Mr. MuUings, M. P. for Cirencester. 



MR. GLADSTONE 

sidered that the Irish Land Act of 1881 
was the most " difficult " measure which 
he ever conducted through the House 
of Commons; while the measure upon 
which he once admitted to me that he 
looked back " with most satisfaction " 
was the bill of 1869, for the Disestablish- 
ment and Disendowment of the Irish 
Church — an institution which he had 
gradually come to consider as "abso- 
lutely indefensible." He was still less 
given to referring to his oratorical suc- 
cesses. Indeed, I never heard him spe- 
cify any particular speech or speeches to 
which he himself awarded the palm. 
But I recollect being at dinner with 
him on February 8, 1882, just after he 
had delivered himself at length in the 
debate on the Address, and his turn- 
ing to his children, and saying, " You 



140 



HIS POWERS OF MEMORY 

will never hear anything better from 
me." ^ 

But though he would hardly ever 
allude to, and never boast of, any of 
his constructive measures or oratorical 
achievements, yet he frequently prided 
himself on trivial performances. He 
used, for instance, smilingly to say that, 
at any rate, he had one claim to be 
gratefully remembered by posterity, and 
that was, as the inventor of a method for 
abbreviating the representation of mil- 
lions. The use of the small " m " had 
long been recognized as the symbol for 
thousands. He had applied the use of 
the same letter to millions by the simple 

1 Hansard, third series, vol. cclxvi. pp. 160-183. The 
speech was a discursive one, as the occasion naturally de- 
manded, touching upon such various subjects as the Duke of 
Albany's betrothal, Egypt, French Commercial Treaty, Free 
Trade, and Ireland's Land Act. 



141 



MR. GLADSTONE 

process of turning its " tail " backward. 
Thus, while 5m. represented 5000, he 
made ^r\\) do duty for 5,000,000, thus 
dispensing with the necessity of six ci- 
phers. He had his symbol for this and 
his symbol for that — each calculated 
to economize time and labor. To give 
another instance, he had signs for differ- 
ent responses to invitations. To the 
names of those invited he would prefix 
a stroke (thus — ), as evidence of their 
having been asked. If the answer was 
an acceptance, he would cross the line 
(thus + ). If it was a refusal, he would 
add another parallel stroke (thus = ). 
If somebody had first accepted, and then 
subsequently was prevented from com- 
ing, he would surround the cross with a 
circle (thus ). 

One of the things that could not fail 
to astonish those who came in frequent 
142 



HIS POWERS OF MEMORY 

contact with Mr. Gladstone was his 
power of memory. It was not only that 
an inexhaustible store of knowledge was 
stowed away in the recesses of his brain, 
but that he was able to draw upon the 
store at pleasure. He could always cite 
some precedent, quote a name, and fur- 
nish a date with extraordinary accuracy. 
Indeed, any one venturing to " measure 
swords" with him about an historical 
incident would almost certainly emerge 
from the contest in a worsted condition. 
In his later years he used to lament that 
his memory was not what it had been 
formerly; but I can call to mind two 
instances calculated to show that, even 
when he was an octogenarian, his powers 
in this respect were marvellous. When 
he was young, he had translated into 
English an ode by Manzoni on the death 
of Napoleon the Great — an ode which 
143 



MR. GLADSTONE 

Mr. Gladstone considered "the only 
good thing ever written about the end of 
that great career." In 1892, apparently 
with a view mainly of testing the strength 
of his memory, he determined to see 
whether he could recollect the original 
of the ode. He had entirely forgotten 
his own translation.^ But by slow de- 
grees — by dint of hard "digging," or 
" fishing up " (as he called it) the scat- 
tered fragments — he succeeded in writ- 
ing down 104 out of the 108 lines of the 
poem in the Italian tongue. About two 
years later he set himself another task. 
Having served as a Cabinet minister in 
nine administrations, extending over fifty 
years, his colleagues in the Cabinet had 
been very numerous. He wished to 

1 See second edition of the "Volume of Translations," 
by Lord Lyttelton and Mr. Gladstone. In the first edition, 
somewhat curiously, only one stanza of the Manzoni Ode is 
given. 

144 



HIS POWERS OF MEMORY 

know how far he could write down a 
complete list of them. By a similar 
process, he succeeded in enumerating, 
correctly, sixty-eight names out of sev- 
enty, notwithstanding the many shifts 
and changes which took place in the 
composition of the Cabinets. A record 
of not less than seventy colleagues is 
almost unprecedented ; ^ and it is inter- 
esting to note, by the way, that the oldest, 
as compared with himself, was the Duke 
of Wellington, born in 1769; while the 
youngest was Mr. Asquith, born in 
1852. 

1 Both Lord Palmerston and Lord Lansdowne eclipsed Mr. 
Gladstone in the number of Cabinet colleagues. Lord Pal- 
merston is to be credited with 76, and Lord Lansdowne with 74. 



145 



XIII 

HIS PERSONAL CHARM AND HOME LIFE 

THE personal fascination of the man 
was so great that it could only be 
properly understood by those who were 
brought in social contact with him. 
One had to stand close by him — to 
" go behind scenes " — in order to appre- 
ciate in full the dexterity of the magi- 
cian's wand. The moment one came 
into his near presence one felt the pecu- 
liar spell. When brought face to face 
with him political antagonists and de- 
tractors succumbed to it equally with 
personal friends and admirers. In short, 
146 



HIS HOME LIFE 

people were drawn to him in spite of 
themselves. His magnetism could not 
be resisted. It is recorded that George 
North ^ once met Mr. Pitt in a country- 
house, and wrote that he was sorry to 
find that " so bad a politician was so 
very pleasant a man." ^ Many opponents 
of Mr. Gladstone, who casually met him 
in social circles, not only made similar 
confessions, but also often had the grace 
to admit that their preconceived notions 
of him had been mistaken. The spell 
was partly attributable to his natural 
courtesy, charm of manner, and polish 
of bygone days, and perhaps still more 
so to the power that he had of making 
those around him at their ease, of 
placing himself en rapport with them, of 

1 Son of Lord North (third Earl of Guilford), Prime Min- 
ister. 

2 See Lord Holland's " Memoirs of the Whig Party," vol. 
i. p. 34. 

147 



MR. GLADSTONE 

unbending himself to them without the 
least affectation. It is probable that he 
never knew what it was to be bored. 
He certainly never allowed himself to 
exhibit any sign of boredom. He was 
the same to every one — the same to the 
lowest as to the highest in the land, the 
same to a foe as to a friend, the same to 
a nonentity as to a notoriety, the same 
to the school-room girl as to the most 
fashionable lady of society. He never 
exhibited intellectual superiority. He 
always placed himself on a level with a 
person with whom he was conversing. 
With the untold number of his interests, 
it would seldom happen that some sub- 
ject in common could not be found, and 
so wide was his range of information 
that there was hardly any matter about 
which he did not know more than his 
neighbor. But if by chance the conver- 
148 



HIS HOME LIFE 

sation turned on a topic with which he 
had little or no acquaintance, he showed 
himself a keen listener, being ever anxious 
to enlarge his store of knowledge. He 
was not only the acme of "agreeable- 
ness" in society; he was a brilliant con- 
versationalist. Whether the subject un- 
der discussion was a question of high 
politics or some insignificant matter about 
dress or fashion, he threw himself into it 
with equal earnestness and vigor. One 
thing specially noticeable about Mr. 
Gladstone's table-talk was the absence 
of all offences against the canons of syn- 
tax. In ordinary conversation most 
people unconsciously pay little or no 
heed to the grammatical construction of 
their sentences. So slipshod, indeed, is 
their talk, that if it were taken down 
word for word by a shorthand writer, 
they would be surprised at the badness 
149 



MR. GLADSTONE 

of their own English. But in the case 

of Mr. Gladstone, so easy and natural 
was the flow of words which always fell 
into the right place at the right moment, 
and so ingrained in him was the strict 
observance of grammar, that his talk 
would at any time have stood the ordeal 
of a verbatim report. And yet there 
was nothing pedantic about his conver- 
sational language. 

He was not a wit himself, but he ap- 
preciated it in others. He held that 
Aristophanes and Shakespeare had claims 
to be considered the two greatest wits in 
literature. He was by no means deficient 
in humor, and had a strong sense of the 
ridiculous. Although he was not quick 
to see a refined jest or a hon mot, yet he 
greatly enjoyed common jokes; and in 
telling or listening to stories, he laughed 
heartily. 

. 150 



HIS HOME LIFE 

It has been said that great genius is 
incompatible with domestic happiness. 
If that be a rule, Mr. Gladstone proved 
a notable exception to it. His home 
life was singularly happy. He was a 
devoted husband; and, as is well known, 
that devotion was continuously recipro- 
cated by the wife who had shared his 
joys and sorrows, his triumphs and de- 
feats, for nearly sixty years, and whose 
one absorbing thought in life was how 
to minister to his wants, how to lighten 
the strain upon him, how to conceal 
worries from him, how to save him 
trouble, how to devise relaxation for 
him, how " to keep him in sickness and 
in health." He was also the fondest of 
parents. His sons and daughters, all in 
their respective ways, were "the apple 
of his eye," and their constant care and 
devotion to him were ever a source of 
151 



MR. GLADSTONE 

comfort, pleasure, and gratification to 
him. In the last interview which I had 
with him, a few weeks before his death, 
he told me that one of the reasons why 
he so much wished to die was the feel- 
ing that he was overtaxing the kindness 
and attention of those nearest and dearest 
to him. 

In short, to see Mr. Gladstone at his 
best, it was necessary to see him in his 
home at Hawarden. Several faithful 
representations of his home life have 
lately appeared; and, therefore, any at- 
tempt to reproduce it here would be a 
repetition of that which has already been 
better told. What struck one most was 
the dignified simplicity of the establish- 
ment, the courteous manner in which he 
played the part of host, the ease with 
which he unbent to his guests, the unre- 
serve with which he discoursed, princi- 
152 



HIS HOME LIFE 



pally at table. Anybody who visited 
him at Hawarden in the expectation of 
hearing him hold forth on the politics 
of the day, whether he happened to be in 
power or in opposition, would have been 
grievously disappointed. He was al- 
ways ready to draw freely on his store 
of reminiscences, to discuss current topics, 
to express his views on books and per- 
sons. But contemporary politics were 
nearly a tabooed subject. 



153 



XIV 

HIS RELIGIOUS VIEWS 

IT is always a delicate matter to refer 
to any man's religious principles. 
But, as religion was one of the principal 
keys to Mr. Gladstone's character, it is 
difficult to omit all reference to that 
sacred subject in his case. It was re- 
ligion that inspired the deepest motives 
which actuated his conduct. Indeed, it 
animated his whole life, public as well 
as private. It was with him a great con- 
trolling force and the leading principle 
of his actions. In his mind belief in " a 
Divine governing power, to which we 
154 



HIS RELIGIOUS VIEWS 

are to account for every thought we con- 
ceive, for every word we utter," ^ was 
implanted when he was a boy; it there 
took fixed root, and it ever deepened its 
hold in that congenial soil. The truth 
of Christianity was to him the most 
assured reality. Doubts can hardly be 
said to have at any time seriously trou- 
bled him; nor could difficulties ever 
avail to shake his convictions or lessen 
his enthusiasm. He believed that "re- 
ligion could be harmonized with science," 
and that " religion of authority was com- 
patible with freedom of thought." His 
faith was — to use Lord Rosebery's elo- 
quent words — " the faith, the pure faith 
of a child, confirmed by the experience 
and conviction of manhood." ^ Various 

1 See Mr. Gladstone's speech in the House of Commons on 
the second reading of the Parliamentary Oaths Act Amend- 
ment Bill on April 26, 1883. 

2 See Hansard, 4th series, vol. Iviii. p. 87. 



MR. GLADSTONE 

positions in the Anglican Church have 
been assigned to him. By those who 
knew him best, he was probably always 
regarded as the most loyal and devoted 
of her members. But in the more preju- 
diced eyes of others, he was at times a 
Papist in disguise, and at other times 
a powerful opponent of the Church of 
Rome. Bred up in the traditions of 
Presbyterianism, he retained to the last 
not a little of the spirit of severe sim- 
plicity and solemn reverence associated 
with the rehgion of his childhood; but 
in early manhood he undoubtedly be- 
came identified with the religious opin- 
ions and aspirations of the " Oxford 
School," and transferred his sympathies 
to the Tractarian movement. He had a 
robust belief in the life and mission of 
the English Church, regarding her as the 
most faithful representative of the Church 
156 



HIS RELIGIOUS VIEWS 

of Christ. He was devoid of bigotry and 
sectarianism. Wherever the fundamen- 
tal doctrines of Christianity were consci- 
entiously held, he was ready to express 
his sympathy with members of all de- 
nominations, however different might be 
their ecclesiastical standpoint from his 
own. 

In his own practice he was scrupu- 
lously careful about the observances of 
religion. Few laymen ever studied their 
Bible with more assiduous and reverent 
care. Sunday to him was the Lord's 
Day — the day of rest and worship. 
Nothing short of urgent necessity hin- 
dered him from attending church every 
Sunday more than once; and he was a 
regular and frequent communicant. On 
Sundays he avoided, as far as possible, 
doing ordinary work. On week-days, 
for some forty years of his life, he rarely 
157 



MR. GLADSTONE 

failed, when residing at Hawarden, to be 
present at an early morning service, held 
in the village church ; and on one occa- 
sion, though advanced in years, he made 
a point of attending a service of the 
Holy Communion, arranged for the con- 
venience of the colliers, at 4 a. m. on a 
week-day. In his home, family prayers 
were said every morning, and on Sunday 
evenings there was a short family service, 
at which his household was present in 
full force. 

The moral teachings of Christianity 
were not only professed by Mr. Gladstone, 
but they were practised by him. It was 
due to this profession, followed by prac- 
tice, that he displayed such intolerance 
of wrong and cruelty, such sympathy with 
the suffering and oppressed, such love for 
peace and freedom. 



158 



XV 

SOME OF HIS OPINIONS ON OTHERS 

BEING a man of strong character, 
Mr. Gladstone naturally formed 
strong likes and dislikes. With a dis- 
position kindly and generous, his likes 
preponderated over his dislikes ; but at- 
tached though he was to his friends, he 
never sought the friendship of those who 
evidently cared no longer to be friends 
with him. It is obviously impossible to 
refer to his judgment of persons who sur- 
vived him; but it may not be uninter- 
esting to record some of his opinionsabout 
men of mark who had preceded him. 
159 



MR. GLADSTONE 

The two statesmen on whom Mr. 
Gladstone probably most founded him- 
self were Mr. Canning and Sir Robert 
Peel. In matters of foreign policy, Mr. 
Canning was the man whom Mr. Glad- 
stone aspired to follow. He could not 
but regard with misgivings and regrets 
Sir Robert Peel's Irish policy, which 
constituted " a black page " in the his- 
tory of that great minister; nor did Mr. 
Gladstone consider that Sir Robert's real 
knowledge of finance and of trade ques- 
tions was commensurate with the suc- 
cessful and masterly manner in which he 
handled economic measures. But, in 
general matters of domestic policy, Mr. 
Gladstone looked upon Sir Robert Peel 
as the safest of all guides, and the great- 
est of all administrators. Indeed, he 
once went so far as to say in my hearing, 
" Taken all round. Peel was the greatest 
i6o 



HIS OPINIONS ON OTHERS 

man I ever knew." With his profound 
admiration for Mr. Canning as well as 
for Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Gladstone was 
never tired of referring to the debts which 
he owed to them by their precepts and 
examples. 

Of his immediate contemporaries who 
were also colleagues during the first half 
of his political career, there was probably 
no one for whom Mr. Gladstone had 
more affectionate regard than for Sidney 
Herbert (Lord Herbert of Lea), whose 
high character, shrewdness, and intrepid- 
ity, together with his " gentleness, tender- 
ness, and simplicity," combined to make 
him, in Mr. Gladstone's estimation, the 
ideal of a man in public life. 

The colleague on whom he unques- 
tionably leaned more than on any one 
else, during the quarter of the century 
preceding his last assumption of office, 
i6i 



MR. GLADSTONE 

was Lord Granville. Mr. Gladstone set 
the highest store on Lord Granville's 
judgment, dexterity, and tact; and he 
rarely took any course or came to any 
important decision without first consult- 
ing Lord Granville. Between the two 
men, greatly as they varied in many re- 
spects, there was the closest political 
brotherhood. In short, what one wanted 
the other suppliedo 

Another colleague whom Mr. Glad- 
stone regarded with special affection was 
John Bright, to whom Mr. Gladstone 
used in familiar terms occasionally to refer 
as "honest John." The "grand moral 
tone" which characterized Bright's say- 
ings and doings, his high principle, the 
consistency of his public career and sol- 
idarity of his character, appealed with 
special force to Mr. Gladstone; and 
acutely as he felt breaches of political 
162 



HIS OPINIONS ON OTHERS 

friendship, there was no one with whom 
he parted company with a heavier heart 
than John Bright when he left the gov- 
ernment in 1882, and again when he felt 
unable to support the policy which was 
enunciated for Ireland in 1886. 

There was, as is well known, no cor- 
diality in the relations between Lord 
Palmerston and Mr. Gladstone. Indeed, 
it is probable that no two men ever sat 
together in the same Cabinet for six con- 
secutive years who had less in common 
with one another, or who understood 
each other so little. What was of vital 
importance in the judgment of the one 
seemed to the other to be comparatively 
immaterial. Mr. Gladstone used to say, 
not wholly in jest, that in attending Cab- 
inet meetings in 1859-65, he not unfre- 
quently took the precaution of carrying 
his resignation " in his pocket." It was 
163 



MR. GLADSTONE 

not that he failed to respect Lord Pal- 
merston's high qualities as a leader of 
men and a leader in Parliament. But 
to Mr. Gladstone Lord Palmerston ap- 
peared to be too ready to sacrifice inter- 
ests at home to interests abroad ; and 
while excellent at "sounding the big 
drum," to be commonly credited with a 
larger amount of political courage than 
that to which he was properly entitled. 

Of his greatest rival, Lord Beacons- 
field, from whom Mr. Gladstone ad- 
mitted that he was " separated by longer 
and larger differences than perhaps ever 
separated two persons brought into con- 
stant contact in the transaction of public 
business," he seldom spoke in really dis- 
paraging terms. He had conceived that 
Mr. Disraeli was wanting in character 
and in reality of conviction ; was "laugh- 
ing in his sleeve," and was playing the 
164 



HIS OPINIONS ON OTHERS 

game of politics as if it were a game of 
chance; and this want of sincerity en- 
gendered a feeling of distrust and appre- 
hension in Mr. Gladstone, as it had pre- 
viously done in Sir Robert Peel. But 
Mr. Gladstone had the greatest respect 
for Lord Beaconsfield's remarkable gifts 
— his strength of will, his long-sighted 
persistency of purpose, his power of self- 
government, and, most of all, his great 
political courage.^ There were, more- 
over, two traits in Mr. Disraeli's charac- 
ter which he specially admired. These 
were Mr. Disraeli's devotion to his wife 
and his love for his own race. He also 
held in genuine esteem Mr. Disraeli's 
parliamentary conduct under adverse 
circumstances, and he once told me that 
he considered Disraeli to be "the most 

1 See Hansard, 3d series, vol. cclxi. pp. 38-45. Speech on 
proposal for erecting a public monument to Lord Beaconsfield 
on May 9, 1881. 

165 



MR. GLADSTONE 

extraordinary personality that there had 
ever been in Parliament." 

Of other contemporaries to whom 
Mr. Gladstone not unfrequently referred, 
Mr. Lowe may be cited as an instance. 
In sheer intellect Mr. Gladstone consid- 
ered that Mr. Lowe had few equals ; and, 
according to Mr. Gladstone's estimate, 
nothing in the records of parliamentary 
debate was entitled to rank higher as 
a masterpiece of reasoning than Mr. 
Lowe's speeches on Parliamentary Re- 
form. But Mr. Gladstone knew no one 
of more mixed and contradictory qualities 
than Mr. Lowe — " splendid in attack, 
but most weak in defence ; at times ex- 
hibiting pluck beyond measure, but at 
other times pusillanimity almost amount- 
ing to cowardice; one day headstrong 
and independent, and the next day help- 
less as a child to walk alone; capable 
i66 



HIS OPINIONS ON OTHERS 

of tearing anything to pieces, but of 
constructing nothing." 

In Mr. Gladstone's later days the two 
men in the political fray who probably 
interested him most were Lord Randolph 
Churchill and Mr. Parnell. That which 
chiefly impressed Mr. Gladstone about 
Lord Randolph Churchill was his " nim- 
ble-mindedness " — his quickness in see- 
ing where the strong points of attack and 
the weak points of defence lay, and in 
gauging the feeling of the House of 
Commons. Had Lord Randolph had 
more principle and more " ballast," and 
had his life been spared, Mr. Gladstone 
believed that to the man who had attacked 
him so often, with no scruples and with 
no respect for weight of years, there 
would have been assured by his "bril- 
liant cleverness " a remarkable name in 
political history. Parnell was an enigma 
167 



MR. GLADSTONE 

to Mr. Gladstone as he was to most 
other people ; but the genius of the man, 
the extraordinary hold which he had 
over his followers, the life of mystery 
which he led, and his " self-contained- 
ness," exercised no small fascination for 
Mr. Gladstone, in whose opinion Parnell 
was the "greatest leader" Ireland had 
ever had. 

Of those whom he had come across 
entitled to be considered as practical 
authorities on the subject of political econ- 
omy, no one stood higher in his estima- 
tion than Joseph Hume, in the sense of 
being a real apostle of public thrift ; and 
the three men whom he regarded as most 
sound on economic subjects, as distin- 
guished from practical finance, were Sir 
George Cornewall Lewis, the first Lord 
Wolverton, and Mr. Bertram Currie. 

Living to the advanced age of eighty- 
i68 



HIS OPINIONS ON OTHERS 

eight, and moving in such varied circles 
ever since he finished his university 
career, Mr. Gladstone probably came in 
contact with a greater number of all 
sorts and conditions of men in public 
life than any other individual of this 
century; but great as that number was, 
there were several persons with whom 
he much regretted not to have made 
personal acquaintance. Foremost of 
these was Lord Melbourne, to whom, 
living as he did until 1848, it is curious 
that Mr. Gladstone should not have been 
introduced. No two public men were 
probably more essentially different in all 
respects than Lord Melbourne and Mr. 
Gladstone, except that they had in com- 
mon a love for theology. But Mr. 
Gladstone had no small admiration for 
Lord Melbourne, to whom he thought 
that a sufficiently high place had not 
169 



MR. GLADSTONE 

been accorded in political history. None 
of the conspicuous men of the present 
reign appeared to Mr. Gladstone to pos- 
sess in a more marked degree the char- 
acteristics of a gentleman than Lord Mel- 
bourne. Mr. Gladstone would illustrate 
his meaning by Lord Melbourne's con- 
duct in connection with the appointment 
of Dr. Hampden to the Regius Professor- 
ship of Divinity in 1836. Before Lord 
Melbourne had made the appointment 
he had consulted Archbishop Howley, 
and his Grace had acquiesced in the 
Prime Minister's proposal. As soon as 
the storm broke out about the appoint- 
ment, the Archbishop threw over Lord 
Melbourne and denounced his action. 
But Lord Melbourne, though he had in 
his possession the Archbishop's original 
letter, abstained, to his own detriment, 
from revealing the truth and denouncing 
170 



HIS OPINIONS ON OTHERS 

his Grace. " That," said Mr. Gladstone, 
"was behaving something like a real 
gentleman." The two men besides Lord 
Melbourne whom Mr. Gladstone might 
have known, and whom he most regretted 
'not knowing, were Sir Walter Scott and 
Dr. Arnold. 

Among the other persons of real mark 
belonging to the first half of this century 
whom Mr. Gladstone held in high re- 
gard, the Duke of Wellington may be 
mentioned. In Mr. Gladstone's view, 
it was difficult to overrate the influence 
for good which the Duke, by his com- 
manding personality and personal weight, 
exercised over his fellow-peers in coun- 
selling them, for the first twenty years 
after the Reform Act of 1832, to be 
moderate, and in persuading them not 
to resist popular demands. 

Of the men who had gone before him, 
171 



MR. GLADSTONE 

there was no one whose memory he cher- 
ished more dearly, and even worshipped, 
than that of Burke, notwithstanding that, 
in Mr. Gladstone's opinion, "the mis- 
chief resulting from the ' Reflections ' out- 
weighed what he did for freedom, justice, 
religion, and purity of government." 

For one of Burke's distinguished 
contemporaries of the last century Mr. 
Gladstone had a still higher veneration, 
and that was for George Washington. 
" If there were a row of pedestals," Mr. 
Gladstone once said, "on which to. place 
human gods, and one were higher than 
the rest, I should place Washington on 
that pedestal as the most fitting occupant 
of it, so strongly am I impressed with 
his moral elevation and greatness of 
character." 

His feeling toward the United States 
as a nation was almost as cordial as that 
172 



HIS OPINIONS ON OTHERS 

which he had for the first President of 
the republic. He had impHcit beUef 
in the future of the EngHsh-speaking 
races on both sides of the Atlantic. The 
ultimate if not the immediate prospect 
of those races, united in blood and lan- 
guage, was to him, as he once expressed 
himself, "majestic, inspiring, andi^onsoy- 
atory." Nay, further, — and it is ipt- 
cially interesting to note at a time when 
there apparently exists a more cor- 
dial feeling between England and 
the United States than at any former 
period, — he considered that it would be 
"nothing short of a crime, were there 
not an understanding among these peo- 
ples." Failure to achieve this end, 
sooner or later, " would be the renunci- 
ation of the most peaceful primacy that 
ever was presented to the human under- 
standing." 

173 



XVI 

CONCLUSION 

A SKETCH of Mr. Gladstone lends 
itself to indefinite expansion. The 
limits, however, of a short monograph 
have been reached ; and the object of it 
will have been served if it should help 
to focus from a near standpoint, and thus 
lead others to appreciate more thoroughly, 
the leading traits of the character of the 
man whose death England mourns, and 
whose familiar presence here on earth is 
missed, and (as one may well believe) 
will continue to be missed, not only by 
his own country, which he loved so 
174 



CONCLUSION 

dearly, but by other countries whose 
welfare he had specially at heart. 

That Mr. Gladstone had failings, it 
would be absurd to deny; and he was 
the last person to have claimed immunity 
from them himself At times he was 
too impulsive; his zeal got the better 
of his wisdom. At other times he al- 
lowed himself to give too much play to 
sentiment. His judgment was often 
mistaken. He may not have been free 
from the extravagances, inconsistencies, 
and mystifications which were freely 
imputed to him; though, if they were 
so conspicuous in him as his opponents 
have alleged, how came it that, while 
these characteristics are repugnant to 
plain Englishmen, he exercised supreme 
influence over a large section of the 
community*? However that may be, 
he was unquestionably imbued with 
175 



MR. GLADSTONE 

high principles; and to high principles 
he appealed. The furtherance of liberty, 
toleration, and progress, the amendment 
of the lot of his fellow-creatures, the 
relief of suffering, the wise husbanding 
of the nation's resources — in short, the 
promotion of better government — were 
his aims. What he desired most to find 
in men was character^ in measures, equity. 
He believed, persistently and implicitly, 
in the existence of truth, and this belief 
he endeavored to instil in others. It 
was, no doubt, a high standard — per- 
haps too high to be attained. But, high 
though that standard may have been, he 
may Furely be credited with having used 
all the great intellectual and moral powers 
with which he had been endowed in per- 
severingly trying to approach the attain- 
ment of it. 

Those powers were, indeed, singularly 
176 



CONCLUSION 

great ; but that which was most remark- 
able about him was not so much that he 
was unique in one particular respect or 
unrivalled in another, as that he com- 
bined so many splendid qualities — 
quickness of comprehension combined 
with patience of investigation; fervent 
enthusiasm and energy combined with 
vast experience and industry; adminis- 
trative and initiative capacity combined 
with constructive genius ; deep religious 
conviction combined with strength of 
character ; oratorical powers with powers 
of exposition ; nobility with simplicity; 
high-mindedness with humility; concen- 
tration with versatility ; courage with re- 
sourcefulness ; courtesy with dignity; 
and dogged determination with heartfelt 
sympathy. It was this extraordinary 
combination of faculties possessed in a 
preeminent degree by one individual 
177 



MR. GLADSTONE 

that gave Mr. Gladstone the command- 
ing position which he held in state af- 
fairs, the sway which he exercised over 
his fellow-citizens, and the high place 
which he won in their affections. The 
ultimate verdict on Mr. Gladstone the 
statesman — that is, on the count of his 
policy, foreign as well as domestic — 
must be given by the impartial historian; 
but it is probably not unsafe to say that 
no man will occupy a higher pedestal in 
the row erected for the " human gods " 
of the nineteenth century, in England, 
than William Ewart Gladstone. 



178 






H 153 79 




^^ APR -,9 

^^ N. MANCHESTER 



